The week started with a pizza party. A month or so prior, Group Nine hosted a contest to see which team in the company could get the most people to sign up to give recurring donations to charities. The Product team had the highest percentage of recurring donors, so the company rewarded the crew with a pizza party.
It was a great way to hang out with my peers, to catch up with co-workers visiting from New York, and to welcome a new member to our team.
That evening, I headed to the Castro for a happy hour sponsored by Group Nine Pride. Pride is the company’s employee resource group dedicated to people who identify as LGBTQIA. The group has a presence in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. It has historically hosted happy hours, exercise outings, a speaker series, and volunteer events for LGBTQIA folks and their allies, and that evening was their first happy hour in San Francisco.
We sang karaoke. My go-to song is “Love Shack.” None of my co-workers would have guessed that about me.
What’s great about Pride is that it offers the opportunity to get to know other folks in the alphabet, but also allows the chance to become friends with folks who work on very different teams. Group Nine’s San Francisco office primarily consists of the Seeker teams, and the Pride happy hour was yet another chance for folks like me — on tech or product — to get to know folks fueling our company’s success.
It was also a chance for me to talk up Group Nine Pride’s next event — a supply drive co-sponsored by the company’s women’s group, Gist, meant to benefit homeless and at-risk women in each city where we have offices.
Fast forward to Thursday. My teammates and I woke up bright and early to head to SFO for a morning flight to southern California, where we spent the day at Disneyland.
It was incredible.
Group Nine’s Product and Tech teams are dedicated to creating spaces and events wherein co-workers can step away from their daily responsibilities and enjoy each other as people. This is in part to emphasize the importance of balancing work and play.
The day was full of good food, tasty drinks, ridiculous rides, and a ton of laughter. It was like a commercial for a chain restaurant, but with Mickey Mouse and sincerity.
And then Friday came along. The whole San Francisco office took an hour-long break to sit as a group — all 40-something of us — and enjoy an early Thanksgiving meal together. With our turkey, veggie dishes, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie, we laughed and celebrated our year. Toward the end of the meal, we say why we’re grateful for each other. People shared everything from work experiences to personal stories to inside jokes. It was clear the crew means a lot to each other.
If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking, “Did this jerk actually get any work done this week?” I mean, yeah. I’d spent the week before in New York, doing research for a new product we’re going to build. My days thereafter were full of more research, a lot of conversations, and a ton of sketching.
That’s part of why these breaks were so welcome. They reminded me to appreciate the people around me. They reminded me that I’m appreciated. And they reminded me that taking a break is important. Even in the midst of challenging, time-consuming work.
No, not every week on Group Nine’s Product and Tech teams is so full of planned functions. But at least one idea persists on a daily basis: Your health, happiness, and wellbeing are your top priorities. Good work will follow.
And now, as I’m writing this, my co-worker is playing the ukulele while I sing along. A peaceful end to a wild week.
Group Nine is always looking for more talent. And no, a recruiter didn’t ask me to write this. Check out our job postings here.
