Please note: this post may contain affiliate links, meaning I get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through my links, at no cost to you. I only recommend products that I use myself and truly recommend. Please read my disclaimer for full info.
Virtual Happy Hour
Like everyone else, I’ve spent more time on video calls this year than I ever could have expected. Everything from family gatherings, to friend meetups, to work trainings, and beyond has gone virtual. Including happy hour. In fact, virtual happy hour became a new ritual for my team this spring. Once our team went remote in March, we had to figure out a way to stay in touch. We no longer had that time in the morning when everyone was turning on their computers to settle in and chat about our favorite shows, or long lunches to catch up on what we did over the weekend. Although we were busier than ever handling all the changes the pandemic threw our way, we still needed to put time aside to talk.
Enter the virtual happy hour. Once every other week or so, we put time aside for the team to gather via Zoom and just have fun. At first, the hour went by in seemingly no time at all. We had so much to catch up on. Who binged Tiger King? What kinds of bread have you baked? How did you make your Dalgona Coffee so perfect? But once we exhausted all the typical topics of quarantine pastimes, we started looking for ways to kill time. Party games seemed like the perfect idea. But there was one problem: nothing was appropriate for work.
Sure, our happy hours were fun. Work talk was strictly forbidden, and the atmosphere was lighthearted. But it was still work. We didn’t want to cross any lines with risque content that could potentially offend someone. And the last thing anyone needed was to check their email on Monday morning and see a meeting request from HR.
The Etsy Idea
In retrospect, I suppose this wasn’t such a crazy idea after all. A good part of my day job involves creating content for my company’s blog and social media. Why couldn’t I create games for our team to play over Zoom? And when we finally get back to the office, we’d have something to spice up the 5th coworker birthday party of the month. (Because let’s face it, those parties are little more than an excuse to leave your desk and eat supermarket sheet cake.) So I set to work.
Even though I had created the games for my team, it wasn’t until a couple months later that I thought of selling them. We held a Zoom Bridal Shower for one of my coworkers, and the party host mentioned that she bought the games we played on Etsy.
Wait.
People pay money for these? I had looked for games to buy back at the start of quarantine, but somehow it didn’t click. If we had such a difficult time finding ways to entertain ourselves on team calls, surely other people did, too! And thus, the idea for The Printable Pair was born. We hope these games give you something to do on some of your endless team calls. Or if you’re lucky enough to be working safely from an office, to provide some entertainment for a quarterly departmental meeting or office birthday party. And we’ll work to keep coming up with new products to make your work life more fun and productive. Whether that’s with ice breakers for company trainings or thank you notes you can send to your team. Of course, if there’s something missing, let us know!
0 Comments