A lot has changed during the last half year, especially our plans for travel and other social events.
Although we are eager to get back to socializing and the old way of life, corona has brought about new rules and we understand it will not go away for a while. This also means our social events will have to wait.
Team building activities, in their essence, are not wasteful events without a goal or purpose. We consider them necessary, although on a voluntary basis.
We spend a large portion of our life at work, so it’s important to us to spend it with people we are comfortable with and have a good relationship with. And good relationships need work and investment. Investment of time, patience and energy. Because of that, we create situations outside of the work environment, in which we can discover what is common to us all, what we are like when not at our computers, and why we should have each other’s backs.
Our team buildings, just as team-buildings of similar companies, entail day-long activities for dozens of people. Those activities can get expensive and as such require budget planning. At Hybrid IT Solutions, larger events, not counting lunches, dinners, goings out, are organized 3 times a year, not including the New Year’s party too.
This year we have already missed one such event, and by the looks of it, we are going to miss the other two planned for the second part of the year.
So, since we intended to spend that budget anyway, we spent it.
For a humanitarian cause.
It’s simple. We redirected the money to a humanitarian organization, while some colleagues increased the amount with their own personal funds.
Why are we writing about this now?
Intentionally, to share the idea with other companies which are in a position to do the same.
As a reminder – compared to the entertainment tax (in Serbian tax law) – the non-taxable amount is 5% of the company’s annual income for charity donations.
We don’t have to eat or drink that money nor welcome a new day under the clear sky or dancing by the swimming pool, because someone else needs it and we won’t miss it.
Cheers! 🙂
