The holidays are a time that many offices celebrate, sometimes with employees whipping up their top entrees or treats.
With the upcoming holiday season, in the name of sustainability, it could be a good time to consider changing the dates of these illustrious events. Sustainable thinking brings us to the conclusion that celebrating after the holidays can have benefits to carbon reduction, better mental health and better productivity.
How can that occur?
The recipe is pretty simple. All offices have to do is consider changing the annual rituals of when they celebrate, moving all the events to after the holiday has passed.
What are the benefits of the shift?
Mental health: The mental health of employees can be boosted positively by putting off a large-scale event until after the holiday has passed. Consider the typical routine of an employee during a holiday week.
For most employees, they’ve already disengaged from work during the holiday week. It really creates unnecessary stress to have this group of employees to bake a huge batch of food, just to go home and bake another huge batch of food for themselves or their families.
Upon return, there’s somewhat of a reset employees go through when returning to the office. Why make your team go through such an ordeal? Employers should take into account that most employees feel this way and capitalize on making them happy about their return with a celebration instead of getting back to it right away. Instead of wasting time on a pre-party, employees can shore up those projects without the added stress of such an event.
Environmental: One of the main environmental benefits of celebrating at the office after the holidays with something like a potluck is that the food that is brought in is possibly leftovers from celebrations that already occurred. Food waste is a huge issue in the U.S., and using up these leftovers, which may not be used up by one family, will not head to the landfill, or at least that’s the idea here.
How to do an after-holiday event
The most sustainable recipe starts with a plan to do an after-holiday event. Simple, right?
A simple way to make sure employees are going to use leftovers only for their after-holiday event is to run a contest. Essentially, employees will try to make their best holiday meals from their holiday affairs. By turning this into something of a challenge and turning up the fun factor, employers could also achieve putting on a team-building exercise as well.
Make sure that people know you’re going to block this day out for your employees as well. Who knows? Your company may start a trend and grow your brand while making your employees happier. A happy workplace can also bring higher production as well.