On an earlier post on workplace etiquette, I mentioned that when you work shift, your crew becomes your second family whether you like it or not. Building positive crew camaraderie can go a long way towards having a positive work environment.
Start A Coffee Club
I LOVE coffee! Who doesn’t like coffee? Coffee has a way of becoming another food group when you are a shift worker. I had a really nice manager when I was an analyst in the lab. She was from Texas that had that Texas hospitality. She always kept a box of K cup coffees and a box of chocolates in her office for the lab workers and she kept her office open during night shift so anyone could help themselves to a coffee and a goody. One K cup coffee usually isn’t usually enough for a night shift worker, and they can be really wasteful so we started a coffee club.
Buy A Bag and Set a Coffee Break
Starting a coffee club did a lot for positive crew camaraderie. Each week somebody in the club would bring a bag of good quality, reasonably priced coffee and they would brew a pot or two of coffee while we were on shift for the others to enjoy. Everyone in the club was responsible for bringing their own coffee additions such as cream, milk, syrups, and whatnot. We had a no rotgut rule, no cheap, poor-quality coffee. Life is too short and shift work is too long for cheap, low-quality coffee.
Coffee Breaks By the Bulk
Another way to run a coffee club is for someone in a crew to buy a five pound bulk quantity of high quality coffee and anyone interested in being in the club chips in a few dollars a month for an unlimited number of cups. Keep in mind that in a shift work environment where multiple crews rotate in and out of a department throughout the work week, other crews will likely help themselves to your tasty java if you leave it out. I would recommend keeping it secured when your crew is off duty.
Start A Snack Club
This is an extension of the Coffee Club when it comes to fostering positive crew camaraderie. At my work, every crew has a footlocker known as the Snack Box where we keep an assortment of snacks as well as the coffee for the Coffee Club. In addition to snacks and coffee, there are paper plates and bowls and disposable tableware. This can be administered in one of two ways. Everyone can chip in whatever snacks and disposable plates and tableware they can; in return, everyone gets full access to the Snack Box. This is a great arrangement if everyone on your crew is cooperative.
Have A Snack Co-op
Another way to administer a snack club is to have a membership where one person administers the Snack Box. They oversee buying the snacks and collecting the membership dues and everyone who is interested in joining pays a fixed amount every month. In return, they get unlimited access. To make it more cooperative, take turns every month or two on who will be the Snack Box Master. This gets everyone involved and fosters a more cooperative team environment.
CAUTION!!!
A major problem with working a rotating shift schedule is weight gain and one of the easiest ways to gain weight is by snacking when you don’t need to be. This is problematic when you do mostly stationary work. This is why I don’t participate in the Snack club. Furthermore, the kind of snacks that a shift worker should be eating can’t be kept in a foot locker. Don’t sacrifice your health for positive crew camaraderie.
Potlucks
The possibilities are endless with potlucks. Because shift workers work on holidays, potlucks are a great way to celebrate a holiday and build positive crew camaraderie. You don’t need a holiday to have a potluck, have one just for fun! I work 12 hour shifts, DuPont schedule. We often have a breakfast potluck on Super Friday, the day before our seven days off. It’s our way of celebrating our making it through another shift rotation. My crew has also been known to have potlucks on the last night shift of our rotation.
Pi Day
When I was an analyst in the lab, we had a pie potluck every March 14th when we were on duty on Pi Day. There were probably two dozen different pies! Only three of the pies were savory pies. We were bouncing off the walls and we probably gained a few pounds but it was fun! Luckily for our health, Pi Day only happens once year!
Have A Secret Santa Gift Exchange
This is a fun activity to do over the holiday season. This is done online, through an app on your cell phone or it can be completely manual. Set down a few basic rules such as price limit or whatever else, have everybody pick an anonymous nickname, and make a wish list. Everybody on the crew pulls a name out of a hat and buys an item on the wishlist for the person they pulled. On the day (or night) of the exchange, the gifts are presented to the person we drew out of the hat.
Be Creative With Packaging
I live in a state where single use plastic shopping bags are illegal. Paper bags cost an additional ten cents per bag, so I have started doing more purposeful gift wrapping. I buy a low cost, but whimsical reusable shopping bag instead of using wrapping paper that will just be discarded. The recipient of the gift has a re-useable bag for their groceries in addition to their Secret Santa present. It’s like two gifts in one.
Charity Drive
This is a great team building and community outreach effort for your workplace. One year a mechanic at my work had a little daughter get diagnosed with leukemia. The entire work site adopted his family for Christmas. Each department was assigned specific gifts. In the end, everyone in the family received gifts for Christmas and the family received gift cards for gas and hotels for travel to the pediatric cancer center.
More Than Camaraderie, Compassion
Another year my work site adopted a grandmother struggling to raise four grandchildren. Each department was assigned specific gifts. In the end, everyone got Christmas gifts, housewares that the family needed were purchased. One of the departments purchased a bicycle and a bus pass for the teenage grandson because he wanted to be able to hold down a job to help the family out.
Community Outreach
Other great activities to build positive camaraderie in your crew, and help your community, are school supply drives at the end of summer. Food banks are always taking donations, especially during Thanksgiving. Lastly, let’s not forget the animals. Local no kill animal rescues are always in need of pet food, supplies, and services.
Off Site Social Activities
Ok, I’ll admit that sometimes we need our space because our crew can get on our last nerve and we want to put as much space between us and them. When it’s not one of those times, off site social activities can be a lot of fun and it’s a great chance to decompress and get to know your crew better. When I was an analyst in the lab, we used to go to dinner and a movie. I used to join friends from other departments at the local Irish pub for dinner and drinks. I have several guys on my crew that do fantasy sports and online gaming together. There are a few guys in my department that do role playing games together. Honestly, you’re only limited by your imagination.