What bingo players can teach us about working from home
Working culture has changed a lot over the last few years. If you’re anything like roughly half the UK’s workforce, you’ve been getting used to working from home and all the perks and pitfalls that can bring.
One of the most profound adjustments has been having to replace the physical with the digital. From meetings to water-cooler catchups, coffee breaks, and weekly stand-ups, the office has felt and looked a lot different for most of us.
The shift has been felt well beyond the bounds of WFH, spilling over into our personal and social lives too. Who can forget the torrent of virtual quizzes springing up, or Friday happy hours from the comfort of your sofa?
If you’ve experienced it, you’ll know the lesson we’ve been taught is that human interaction and teamwork still need to be found in every aspect of our lives, no matter whether we’re separated by a few desks or entire continents.
Interestingly, some communities had successfully replicated the analogue experience online. One of the finest examples of that can be found amongst the eager crowds playing for the bingo jackpots offered by Paddy Power. It’s interesting to watch communities form and grow online, and they tend to be the most successful when everything happens naturally. From forums and chat rooms to traditional-come-digital worlds of bingo and other games, the internet has proven time and time again that there’s space for everyone and all tastes out there. Technology has helped bridge the gap when it comes to forming communities without the physical space.
Online bingo has been popular for well over a decade, and thanks to advances in technology, it’s now also a lot more realistic. For fans of the game, this has introduced a more immersive experience and opened up increasingly sophisticated and exciting games for them to play.
Alongside this, a real sense of community still exists between the players. Something fundamental to the enjoyment of an evening at the bingo hall. And, perhaps surprisingly, the element of teamwork remains palpable within the digital setting, as players compete both against each other and to earn the honour of calling ‘house’. Within the forums and discussion boards, the spirit of togetherness is there. These bingo players are there for each other and willing one another to win. As the jackpot increases and the prizes accumulate, the feeling of camaraderie is all so clear.
And isn’t that just like any healthy workplace? Yes, we all want to do the best job possible individually but, as any HR manager worth their salt knows, the real victory comes when a team wins together.
The lesson to be learned from this is that the mere presence of distance between us doesn’t need to be a barrier to the human experience. All the signs are that working from home will become a more common occurrence for a lot of workers in the coming months and years. In just a short period of time, we’ve discovered new ways to communicate, collaborate, and celebrate together.
With the advancement of technology our working culture has changed quickly, but if traditional communities like bingo can adapt and thrive, what’s stopping the rest of us?
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