“This is the first Christmas party I am throwing as head of the party planning committee. The theme is “Nights in Morocco.” This isn’t your grandmother’s Christmas party. Unless, of course, she’s from Morocco, in which case it’s very accurate.”
For those who have not seen the TV sitcom The Office, that quote may be unfamiliar to you. If that is you, it’s now streaming on Peacock, so go watch it! But for everyone else, you’ll recognize that quote from Phyllis when she finally takes the reign of the Party Planning Committee after Angela released control.
The Office aired from 2005 to 2013, essentially when I was in high school and college. It was very formative of how I, and others in the same generation, thought about the work environment. We had moved past the TPS reports from Office Space and seen that, though in Hollywood, the office work environment can, and should, be fun.
At Sain, our party planning committee is aptly named the Funtime Committee. It is the source of a lot of fun that happens at Sain. From Christmas parties to Minor League Baseball games, the Funtime Committee is responsible for a lot of the good times had by our employees.
Even more than that, I believe the Funtime Committee has engrained fun into Sain’s culture. We are in the business of engineering, and engineers typically get a bad reputation for being dull. Can you really have fun with a pocket protector? At Sain, that answer is yes. We have events year-round, from bowling, baseball, parking lot parties, and chili cook-offs, all the way until the Christmas party. We also have camaraderie with competitions like March Madness pools and Super Bowl prop sheets.
As an engineering firm, we certainly enjoy what we do, and it can be fun in and of itself. But we want to ensure we have a little fun along the way. So whether we are throwing wedding showers or mounting a horse to film an Old Town Road parody for Christmas entertainment, we hope to see some smiles.