If you’ve ever worked in an office, you are probably familiar with weekly staff meetings. You’re probably also familiar with sighing and saying “meh” as you walk into it.
If there’s one thing we hate at Old Town Media. It’s “meh.” Seriously, nothing kills marketing like the same old, same old. So why would we settle for just another forgettable staff meeting? We’re about embracing our values on every level, right down to our weekly meetings. That starts with moving staff meetings from Monday mornings to Friday afternoons. And it gets better from there: If you were to walk into our office during one of our Friday meetings, chances are good you’d hear the sound of bottles poppin’ (watch out!) and glasses clinking.
OK, let’s be honest: That could happen any day of the week in this office. Just bear with me for the sake of the blog, would you? Anyway, this summer, we created the idea of Champagne Fridays to smoosh staff-meeting “meh” once and for all. It’s simple enough really: Each Friday, if we won a new bid or project, we reward ourselves with a chilled glass of champagne. Oh, and we’re also about clever pairings: our toasts are sometimes accompanied by Wing Shack wings, Pizza Casbah or Cheba Hut — depending on who is in charge of the snacks. That’s just how we do it at OTM: We win bids and come up with pairings that make sommeliers cringe.
An outsider may look at our Friday meetings and compare them more to an “adult recess” than your traditional staff meeting. This short-standing Friday tradition is one that everyone takes pretty seriously:
Oh, you thought I was kidding? Don’t be shocked if you see us rocking Champagne Friday T-shirts sometime soon.
Champagne Fridays have turned into a deliciously bubbly tradition here at Old Town Media, during which our team takes an hour (or two) to celebrate our wins and toast each other on accomplishments, big or small. Human resource professionals could probably wring this idea for a few seriously boring blogs about morale-boosting efforts, team building and embracing our company’s culture, but I know what you’d probably say about reading that kind of thing: “Meh.”
You know how we feel about meh.
*Shameless Plug: Perhaps I was chosen to write this blog because I run (I use that term loosely) a website called Mimosas & Messybuns? Who knows…who…knows.