december 2009 NEWSLETTER

Engineers and Technical Professionals


Since it's the holiday season, rather than waxing eloquent about something of significant value, I thought I'd lighten it up a bit by sharing with you my own fractured industry spin on the Top Three HR Approved Office Party Games for your office holiday party so here goes:

  1. Guess Who: The standard version of this is to compile a list of popular/celebrity names and put each one on a post-it note. As people filter in, stick a post-it on each of their backs. This becomes their 'personality' for the evening. It is important to make sure that nobody sees who they have! As the party goes on, you need to guess who you've got stuck to your back. You'll figure this out by the way people talk to you and what they say. So instead, wouldn't it be funny to make everyone a different type of engineer on the post-it notes? Imagine the questions you could ask!!
  2. Two Truths and a Lie: In this game, each person reveals three facts about them, two of which are true, one of which is a lie. The group votes on which is the lie and whoever guesses the lie correctly, wins! So what if we tweaked the rules to make it so that you have to say three things about your company's future growth/staffing plans. Now wouldn't THAT be interesting??!!
  3. Name that Tune: You remember the old game where you select a few well-known songs beforehand and play a snippet of each and then everyone must write down their best guess for the title of each song. At the end; the person to guess the most songs correctly wins a prize. Here's a twist. Why not find pictures of several refinery sites across the US and everyone has to name who they used to be owned by before whoever owns them now.

Ok so the pressures of 2009 have obviously finally gotten to me and maybe you won't play any of these at your next office party, but whatever you do, please take some time over the holiday season to relax and enjoy yourselves and pat yourself on the back for surviving 2009. Oh and don't forget to count your blessings! Happy holiday season to all of you and here's to a wonderful 2010!