Hobby Wednesdays
Everybody has a hobby (citation needed). Jokes aside, this is something I believe. Let’s do some math: assuming you have a regular 8-hour workday, need 1 hour to get to and back from work respectively and sleep the recommended 8 hours a night, this leaves you with 6 hours a day to do… things. Sure, household chores come into the picture, so do children (reducing those hours drastically), but so does the weekend, adding another 32 hours of time to do… things. What activities that bring you joy do you spend them on? Clothes shopping? Hobby. Reading books? Hobby. Barhopping? Hobby. Chilling with friends? Hobby. Watching paint dry? Hobby! (No judgement here, you do you, friend) If you’re still in doubt, I would like you to take a moment and think about your week schedule and find what activities you fill your free time with. Coincidentally, these activities most likely bring you some amount of joy (I hope). Are you done realizing you have hobbies? Great, on with the blog post!
Hobby Wednesday
The currently running “Hobby Wednesday” at Code Factory is an approximate 3-hour timebox (most) Wednesdays after work, where a group of colleagues get together and do… whatever fits a social activity we can all get some enjoyment out of. Usually it’s board- and card games, sometimes it’s games like Dungeons & Dragons. And sometimes we use this slot to do something more special – sculpt stuff out of clay, drink wine and paint abstract art, watch a movie we voted on while eating popcorn in our chill-out-room, learn to do embroidery with a punch needle, have a ping-pong or Mario Kart tournament… you get the idea. We’ve even had a presentation/workshop on how to use turntables to mix music like DJs do, pioneered by (pun intended) our colleague Luise, who does it as a hobby and decided to share it with us.
The whole “thing” started with me trying to introduce some of my colleagues to table-top roleplaying games (think Dungeons and Dragons even though it was a different ruleset, but the same basic principle). Then it shifted to me bringing my Magic the Gathering decks to the office and teaching some people to play. Shortly after a few other coworkers who already knew how to play and had decks of their own joined in. That’s when it struck me: you could be sitting next to someone who shares a hobby with you and never know about it, because most conversations you have with them are work-related. And so, we’ve expanded the idea by talking to people about it during lunch, spreading to word during our monthly all-hands meetings, experimenting with different kinds of activities, which all led to it being what it is today, maturing from me just “bringing my hobbies to work” to a place where everyone can share their hobbies and passions with others.
Participation is, of course, voluntary, but highly recommended. These little weekly get-togethers are an amazing opportunity to get to know coworkers from other teams and other projects in a rather casual environment. It reminds us that the recipients of our MS Teams chat messages are people, and that even though we build software every day, our main job is still working with people. And getting along with these people. And that a little bit of empathy goes a long way. And that I should wrap this up before I get too philosophical.
In conclusion, whether you want to participate in the activities we offer, suggest your own activity, lead a workshop and teach others something you enjoy, just have a conversation about your favorite James Bond villain or try to convince someone why ‘machicolation’ is the best word in the English language when talking about medieval castle architecture (‘crenellation’ is a close second) – the Code Factory’s Hobby Wednesday is something you are more than welcome to join.
written by Roman Uglovskij, Backend Developer