The Portal Integrators Team
Last July 2016, we, the Portal Integrators Development team, had the chance to hang out with our favorite Product Owner, and the author of the new Office 365 for Dummies 2016 book, Rosemarie Withee, here in our Laguna office. It was our first time to meet her in the flesh after years of meeting through video calls, so it was an exciting month (with some awkward moments on the first meeting; we were just naturally shy people).
The Portal Integrators team likes to balance work and play, so if we have stressful weeks, we make sure to find some time to relax and hang out by watching movies, or going out to dinner, or karaoke nights especially during extra stressful sprints, we sing (or at least attempt to sing) our stress away. We make sure to do this regularly to avoid burnout and to manage stress.
So it was only natural to have an event when Ma’am Rosemarie came to visit us. We had a frisbee and early dinner activity. It was our first time playing frisbee with each other, and through that activity, we found out that most of us are in dire need of more physical activities. We were physically tired after, but we felt mentally and emotionally refreshed. We had so much fun even though we were out of breath due to running and laughing around. We used our custom-made frisbee too, which has the Portal Integrators logo on it and we would like to thank Ma’am Rosemarie for these awesome stuff!
Team events help us not only as a way to de-stress after work, but also it is a time for us as a team to bond with each other outside of the office, and build camaraderie. It helps strengthen the team since through team events we also get to discover each other’s strengths and talents. It also helps remove the building toxicity caused by too much stress in the workplace.
Having team events is one of the things that keep us, the Portal Integrators team, a tightly-knit, productive, and happy bunch.
