American Thanksgiving comes with a lot of baggage, both historically and personally. The end-of-year holidays can be a real struggle for many people—after all, this is traditionally a time for family.
You know, that thing that your upper management says your team should be. We’re a family here.
But ‘family’ is a loaded concept, increasingly so over the last few years. For the lucky few, holiday family time is something to look forward to, but for the rest of us? It’s an obligation at best. Who wants to be forced to eat with their weird extremist uncle who no one ever calls out to ‘keep the peace’?
I don’t want to work with that guy, either. Trust me, I’ve worked with that guy. He wasn’t my family. I don’t want to associate my job with family—believe it or not, I like my job. Skellig isn’t a family and never tries to be.
I’m smack in the middle of the millennial generation, so the concept of Friendsgiving is nothing new. This year, as I’ve come to know leadership at Skellig in a personal way, I’ve been thinking about Friendsgiving a lot. Not as an event, but as a concept.
So, what is Friendsgiving, at its core?
It’s a choice. You choose who sits at the table—and you choose to come to the party. No one forces you to sit down.
At Skellig, we talk ad nauseam about the Skellig Way, which is our set of principles and values that we apply when making business decisions. This year, we’ve started implementing the Skellig Way more pointedly. As a result, we’ve lost some people, and we’ve gained some, too. Our business evolves as it grows.
As we refine our application of company culture, we are always considering who to invite to the table. We don’t consider candidates in a vacuum—they have to align with their teams and be compatible with us.
Here are a few of the Skellig Way values:
- We assume positive intent across the board. Believing the best in people has a way of bringing it out in them.
- We believe in and enable the power in diversity. All voices at Skellig are encouraged to speak.
- We put people first. On the Skellig website, the tagline, ‘Solving problems. Being human.’ is front and center. Humans solve problems—we use our imaginations, our knowledge, and our values. There’s not much we can’t figure out if we have what we need.
When I invite people to a party, or when I go to one, people who live these values are the people I want to eat with. I want to feel as if I’m sitting with people who believe in me, who take interest in my experiences and what I bring to the table. I don’t want to be in an echo chamber, or be faced with everyone bringing the same dish to dinner. Friendsgiving is a potluck—whatever you can bring, whether it’s traditional for me or traditional for you. Come as you are.
Given the right tools, humans can learn to do anything, but values are intrinsic. We can’t teach integrity, how to believe in others, or how to care for people, so we extend our invitations to those who value what we do. If we’re lucky, they choose to sit at our table, and if we’re luckier, they choose to stay.
