From keeping employees engaged to boosting team cohesion, little traditions—office rituals like shared lunches, team outings, and impromptu in-person hangs—have kept our workplace sunny.
As the world increasingly shifts to hybrid work, how can we continue to sustain those moments of warmth? Keeping the spirit alive—without the physical water cooler or break room—can prove challenging. Thankfully, there are opportunities to create new rituals and put a fresh, fun spin on time-honored ones.
What are office rituals?
Office rituals are the shared practices, activities, and traditions that help define a company's culture. They can be as simple as ‘casual Friday’ or as elaborate as annual retreats. Some of the more common examples include:
Morning check-ins or “huddles”
Weekly team lunches
Birthday celebrations
End-of-week wind-down sessions
Work anniversaries
Lunch and learns
Rituals like these help employees feel connected to their colleagues and the company. They can even reinforce shared values, providing a sense of stability and belonging. In traditional office settings, these rituals often occur naturally, creating opportunities for spontaneous relationship building. It’s a natural flow—one that the hybrid model of working can disrupt.
The distance challenge
While employers and employees alike enjoy the benefits of a more flexible way to work, being out of the office—even for one or two days a week—creates physical distance that can lead to a sense of isolation among remote workers.
The challenge lies in ensuring office rituals adapt to include all team members, regardless of their physical location. The hybrid model presents unique opportunities to innovate and strengthen company culture through inclusivity and flexibility. All there’s to do is adapt the traditional rituals your teams love and, with exploration and flexibility, usher in new ones.
Hybrid ritual how-tos
Companies and teams need to think creatively to overcome the challenges of hybrid work and any feeling of distance and isolation that may come with it. This new way to work demands new modes of interaction. Here are some examples of traditional rituals adapted to the hybrid work environment:
Virtual coffee breaks: Start your day or take a mid-afternoon break with a warm cup of coffee in hand, joined by the smiling faces of your team on your screen. Virtual coffee breaks can quickly become a delightful pause in the day that re-energizes everyone and fosters a sense of community outside of work.
Weekly virtual team meetings: Virtual roundtables are where collaboration happens are critical for hybrid teams to ensure everyone’s working in sync towards shared goals.
Digital “water cooler” channels: Digital tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams are the new “water cooler” spots, where team members drop in to share a joke, a meme, a pet photo—an online forum to keep the spirit of spontaneous office interactions alive.
Friday wind-downs: While every day might be casual Friday as part of a remote team, it doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities to connect. Host a Friday meeting that celebrates the week’s achievements and where employees can share their big weekend plans.
It’s a new era—one that not only reinforces the importance of maintaining office rituals in a hybrid setting but also ensures that every team member, regardless of their location, feels included and valued.
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