From the outset, Atmos International has always been proud of its social program and the benefits it delivers to its colleagues. Across Atmos offices in China, Costa Rica, North America and the UK, teams have participated in cocktail making, tenpin bowling, paintballing and junkyard crazy golf to name but a few. With lockdown in place, socializing with colleagues has been challenging.
The Atmos Employee Activity Program (EAT) is supported by the company and organized by local committees. This ensures that each activity is unique and enables everyone to attend at least one event a year. While go-karting (especially against a former champion) may not be everyone’s cup of tea, attending a cookery class or making cocktails gives a different flavor of the event.
Like many organizations, Atmos has relied on its digital technology to bring colleagues together. Some of these have been the informal end of the week get-togethers, others to celebrate birthdays. Yet, while webcams and chat are great to allow colleagues to see one another, there’s not so much sense of sharing in an activity.
Cue Lisa Becker. Lisa and her team organized a Virtual EAT event for colleagues in Atmos’ Anaheim office in California. To make the virtual gathering a little unique, the EAT organized for food and drink to be delivered to the local office where packs were made up. The virtual EAT packs included some necessities for an EAT event – beer. To ensure this wasn’t just a liquid event, food from a local Cuban bakery was included.
Using Microsoft Teams, attendees were able to enjoy the cuisine and beers while catching up on the non-work events and social news.
Lisa Becker, maintenance manager for Atmos and co-organizer, said: “We’re a tight-knit group here in Anaheim. Something common across the Atmos family internationally. Not seeing our ‘work-family’ for so long has been hard. While we’re always on Microsoft Teams calls, we don’t get to socialize in the same way.”
Adrian Kane, Vice President of Business Development for Atmos, added: “One of the great things about Atmos is our working relationships. The culture is about being better together, so it was great to kick back and have a fun conversation. It was so nice to hear laughter and the banter we usually have.”