every new project we have a drinks in the office at the end of the day, if its a big or really interesting project we get champs, otherwise wine...seems to have been happening quite alot though lately :)
Agree with jayness - good news need to be shared, and generously, with all members of the firm. A joint celebration, even a fairly brief one but during work hours, pays huge emotional dividends to everyone in the firm.
That said: last time I thought we got a big job, I went to a bar and got a Manhattan, by myself on a Friday afternoon, to celebrate. Three weeks later the job vanished. So now I don't celebrate potentials anymore; I celebrate the small joys I find in every day practice - which are numerous.
last office had a bell they would ring whenever a new contract was signed. they often made it ceremonial for the client to ring the bell - then the staff could get into the office keg.
For a while in our office I enjoyed ringing a small bell upon successful completion of increasingly insignificant tasks until it got just pretty darn silly... finally I was ringing the bell after my return fom the mens room.
we jump up and down when we get a big job. sometimes there's cake. our office is near a really good bakery.
we have no established ritual for when the job later goes to sleep and never is heard from again.
perhaps we ought to sing mournful Puccini arias of abandonment when we send the bill for attending that one kick-off meeting, plus mileage. "we'll get started on SD when the robins nest again!"
our ritual is to go out for drinks together as an office when the client's first check clears the bank --- then, we know it's a real project --- maybe!
the last place i worked was too cool to celebrate getting big jobs. we just assumed we would get every job we went for, which naturally led to people getting depressed when we didn't get every job.
we did celebrate the completion of photoshop renderings though.
Typically it gets a unified groan from everyone. I've only seen the principals turn down maybe 2 jobs so we have more work than we can do and theres really no need to add on a generic hotel that has to be done in 3 weeks.
Once the contract is signed we have a bottle of champagne, then the owner puts everyone's name on it and the project(s) it represents, then it's put on a shelf in the kitchen for everyone to see.
maybe we ought to make more of getting the big ones. they sort of pass by as a nonevent in our office - except for when we start talking about how we're going to get them started.
May 5, 08 1:38 pm ·
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Winning the Job
Yesterday we won an $80 million job. The boss called everyone into the lobby in the afternoon and busted out the champaign. It was awesome.
I remember specifically leaving one architectral firm because one day we won a huge project and nobody even let out the smallest peep in celebration.
Any celebrations you guys can remember having when you win a big job?
every new project we have a drinks in the office at the end of the day, if its a big or really interesting project we get champs, otherwise wine...seems to have been happening quite alot though lately :)
Its a must, I think its great you left an office that couldn't celebrate its success, there are far too many uptight and cheap offices
we used to bust out the chmpagne when winnnig/placing competitions. now we just have beers on fridays
Agree with jayness - good news need to be shared, and generously, with all members of the firm. A joint celebration, even a fairly brief one but during work hours, pays huge emotional dividends to everyone in the firm.
That said: last time I thought we got a big job, I went to a bar and got a Manhattan, by myself on a Friday afternoon, to celebrate. Three weeks later the job vanished. So now I don't celebrate potentials anymore; I celebrate the small joys I find in every day practice - which are numerous.
last office had a bell they would ring whenever a new contract was signed. they often made it ceremonial for the client to ring the bell - then the staff could get into the office keg.
my last office used to sacrifice virgins, you guys are too, modern.
treekiller... just curious -- to what extent did this trigger some sort of Pavlovian response? Any involuntary drooling when that bell rang?
I always sacrifice a virgin to GET the job. How long do you think they'll keep believing I'm a virgin? ;-)
(Haha, OK, totally inappropriate, I know. Sorry.)
it was a very reactionary office. drooling was the least of the problems.
HAH!... treekiller --
For a while in our office I enjoyed ringing a small bell upon successful completion of increasingly insignificant tasks until it got just pretty darn silly... finally I was ringing the bell after my return fom the mens room.
we jump up and down when we get a big job. sometimes there's cake. our office is near a really good bakery.
we have no established ritual for when the job later goes to sleep and never is heard from again.
perhaps we ought to sing mournful Puccini arias of abandonment when we send the bill for attending that one kick-off meeting, plus mileage. "we'll get started on SD when the robins nest again!"
our ritual is to go out for drinks together as an office when the client's first check clears the bank --- then, we know it's a real project --- maybe!
the last place i worked was too cool to celebrate getting big jobs. we just assumed we would get every job we went for, which naturally led to people getting depressed when we didn't get every job.
we did celebrate the completion of photoshop renderings though.
kinda dysfunctional. glad i'm not there any more.
Typically it gets a unified groan from everyone. I've only seen the principals turn down maybe 2 jobs so we have more work than we can do and theres really no need to add on a generic hotel that has to be done in 3 weeks.
Once the contract is signed we have a bottle of champagne, then the owner puts everyone's name on it and the project(s) it represents, then it's put on a shelf in the kitchen for everyone to see.
maybe we ought to make more of getting the big ones. they sort of pass by as a nonevent in our office - except for when we start talking about how we're going to get them started.
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