The best virtual employee appreciation ideas

“Hello…hi….can everyone — can you hear me?” That was day one of this work-from-home saga. About a week before the rest of the world went into lockdown, my boss sent us all home for our own good. “But don’t worry” she wrote in an email “we’re working on some virtual team building games and activities so you’ll all feel like you never even left the office!”. Great. My boss, who still CCs when she should BCC in an email, was going to set up some virtual employee appreciation ideas? That’ll go well. Listen, I get along with my boss. She’s great, don’t get me wrong. She was the first one to say we don’t get paid enough to get sick from a mystery virus. Also, she’s the one stuck at home with her kids trying to be a teacher and manage a team of remote workers at the same time. When she asked me to come up with some virtual staff appreciation ideas during COVID-19, I did it. I figured I could come up with suggestions that sounded better than a video-chat happy hour. My boss was ecstatic. I said we could play Pictionary online, but of course she couldn’t figure out how to sign in to the website. I had to email her a step-by-step guide. “I cannot wait to get back to the office” she said to me once. Her kids had just run into the background of her video for the 5th time that day, “we don’t get paid enough to deal with all these distractions”. “Yeah,” I agreed, “it’s just constant over here”. Meanwhile I was staring out my condo’s window at the window washers across the street. Later that day we launched the team pictionary tournament — and that’s when it happened. “Can you hear me? I…I don’t know why I’m a potato”

We all laughed, I mean if anyone on the team was going to be accidentally turned into a potato, it was our boss. I told her I’d help her fix it later, and we kept going with the game. Honestly, it was a pretty great idea! Better than the virtual team building bingo I first thought of, and way easier than awkwardly sitting in my work clothes drinking with my coworkers over Microsoft Teams. I went to bed knowing I had come up with a good COVID staff appreciation idea — my boss was happy and the rest of my team didn’t hate it. Pictionary Tournament would happen again. The next morning I did what I usually do — wake up about 15 minutes before my morning touch base, grab a cup of coffee, and pulled on the first not-stained outfit I could find. I logged on to Microsoft Teams, and went to check in with my boss…..who was still a potato. “Please, can you help?” We both laughed. Kids these days, right? They know way more about their parents and definitely know how to pull off a seamless prank. I tried to help her but…well her kids did a really good job locking down the filter. I tried every troubleshooting idea I had and my boss was still a potato. “It’s okay. I’ll just be a potato today! It’s a harmless prank”, she said. My boss is way calmer than I would ever be in that situation. We went back to discussing other ways to thanking employees during COVID after the success of the Pictionary Tournament. She managed to take the potato filter in stride, hoping that one of her kids would help her out and remove the spud spectre.

So, bad news. My boss is still a potato. She has a good sense of humor about it though. We have a Teams channel called “Potato Days” in which our boss chronicles her days as a potato. I’m a little concerned I mean, she might be taking this potato joke too far. There’s no way she’s actually a potato…right? Potatoes don’t think about getting virtual gifts for coworkers. I know we’ve all been spending more time at our computers, and the lines between real life and virtual are blurred but she can’t just turn into a potato! One of my coworkers was asking about some virtual recognition event ideas and asked if our boss was “okay”. Apparently she’s been talking about finding a cool, dark basement to work in. Something that would bring her back to the “earth”. I didn’t really know what to say. Maybe my boss is a potato. As the months have gone on she’s more and more potato-like. Makes a lot of jokes about spuds, and all her virtual employee appreciation event ideas have to do with gardening and burying ourselves in soil. I tried to explain it to my friends but how do you explain your boss turning into a potato?

This year has been unexpected, to say the least. After finally finding a comfortable way to work from home (fancy pyjamas), and some fun virtual games to play with friends remotely, I think I’m getting the hang of this whole COVID-19 thing. Except, of course, with my boss becoming a potato. Honestly, we all thought it was a prank her kids pulled on her, but at this point she’s been a potato for every virtual group game we’ve played! She constantly makes spud jokes, and pretty much every time it’s her turn to draw in pictionary she pics something potato-related. Did you know there are over four thousand different types of potatoes? And yes — they all look pretty much the same. At least, they look the same to those of us who haven’t turned into potatoes. What I really wonder is if the potato filter will stick. I haven’t seen my boss in person since we left the office — back when she was definitely one hundred percent human. Will she be a potato filter, irl? Is she a whole potato?

We’re not taking bets on our boss’ potato-hood. Everyone is curious but we have a soft spud (ha!) for her. She’s been the one asking us about staff appreciation day 2020 — the year where we usually have a company picnic. She’s the one asking if doing a virtual tour of a potato farm would be exciting — a misguided suggestion but I got her back on track. Employee appreciation day ideas during COVID-19 are hard to come up with. I suggested giving everyone a gift card to do some takeout or delivery from a restaurant. I made sure to tell her we should let everyone pick what they wanted — you know, so we don’t limit our options to potato-less restaurants. I think the fact that we’ve all been going through this change together has really bonded our team. No one else really believes us, the rest of the company still thinks her kids are pranking her and she just doesn’t know how to change it. But we have a plan that for staff appreciation week, we’re all going to add potato filters to our video, in solidarity. I think I might make a potato mask out of some cardboard. Just in case…

We decided on takeout delivery gift cards as the remote employee appreciation gifts. My boss agreed it felt personal because we could all eat together, but less of a hassle than trying to organize delivery to the whole team. We were talking about what to say when sending employee appreciation messages during COVID-19 when I started telling her about this brunch restaurant a few of us went to. Since it’s been deemed safe to eat on patios, a few of us on the team decided to check out this cool new brunch spot. An idea for rewarding remote employees had been floating around the company; that some of us should meet up in person — and it actually worked out! The team was super excited to see each other “irl” and I was telling my boss about my breakfast order when I said: “Their potato hash was to die for” I said it without even thinking! It just slipped out! The potato hash was delicious — with rosemary sprigs in it, yum - but when I saw the look on my boss’ face I regretted it. Her face went even whiter than I thought it could on her new potato-y complexion.

All in all, I wouldn’t change my work experience during COVID at all. I certainly hope my boss is okay but even if she is slowly turning in to a potato, she’s managed to keep going above and beyond as a boss. She really knows how to recognize employees during the pandemic; organizing all these virtual events, and sending us gifts on Amazon. She sends gifts for employees during COVID like Amazon sends packages — I wonder what Amazon would do to their employees if they did the same. Now I’m helping my boss organize a virtual employee recognition ceremony for the team. She’s sending everyone an Amazon gift card no matter what their “award” is; and printing the recognition certificates on little potato-shaped scrolls! I’m glad we decided to accept our potato boss, as it’s brought all of us a sense of humour during the pandemic. We are able to recognize that she is having a hard time, with the potato filter still on in Microsoft Teams (and possibly in real life too), and I think her difficulties have helped her with some employee recognition during COVID. Realizing that we’re all having a hard time in our own way: whether it is spud-related or just because we feel a little disconnected from everyone else.