Party on? High-tech's delicate dance navigating festivities in times of turmoil
Party on? High-tech's delicate dance navigating festivities in times of turmoil
As the war in Gaza wages on, the Israeli high-tech industry deals with shifting from a culture of fun and excess to raising employee morale modestly in a manner "adapted to the situation"
"It was really clear to me that there wouldn't be a Purim party this year because it's less suitable in light of the situation, and it's better that we do something alternative," says Inbal Cinman, VP of Human Resources at Elad Software Systems. "We were thinking of doing something modest in the offices, we planned to invite the Kibbutz Re’im community to us, and we had already built a concept for Purim packages. But then employees started asking me: 'What's going on with the Purim party?’, and said 'We would be happy if you would do it and not cancel it'. So I brought it up for discussion at the management meeting, I discovered to my surprise that there were very diverse opinions: from 'it is not at all appropriate to have a Purim party at a time like this' to the opposite extreme of 'we are really looking forward to it.'"
Celebrations are an integral part of high-tech culture. From the weekly Happy Hour, through special sessions on festive days to huge events to mark an exit, an IPO or just the end of a really good year in business. But now is not the time for celebrations - when many workers are serving in the IDF reserves, the numbers of the dead and wounded are growing, and there is no end in sight to the war and the hostage crisis.
The personnel managers in the various companies vary between the need to consolidate the employees and raise their morale and the need to give room to the national mood and respect those who feel that any kind of celebration is inappropriate during such days. The holiday of Purim, which is coming, marks a watershed - after all, it is the holiday that Israeli high-tech companies like to celebrate in the most exaggerated way. "Purim is clearly a party, unlike other events that are celebrated in other ways," Cinman says. "There is something about this holiday that makes everyone compete to show off who has the bigger event - who brought a bigger entertainer to perform."
So what will you do on Purim this year?
"We haven't made a final decision yet. I said I would check with other companies to see what they do."
Everyone is looking over their shoulder to see what the others are doing?
"Exactly. No one wants to be an exception in the landscape. In any case, any solution we implement will be in the middle. If we throw a party, then it will include elements that embrace the communities affected by the war, and knowing that if we get up on the day of the party to terrible news, we will cancel it, no matter the cost we put into it."
What is "terrible news"?
"This is really a complex question. Will we cancel the party in case there are three dead soldiers that day or 20? It's not like during the pandemic when there were clear instructions for closings and when to open. In those cases someone guided me. Here I have to make the rules myself and figure out what my value scale is."
How do you do that?
"During recent months, we examined decisions in the field of human resources according to the situation at that point in time: Is it appropriate to open a new course or not? Is it appropriate to celebrate Valentine's Day or not? Should we celebrate Family Day when there are now many broken families? Our solution in Elad was to connect each activity to the situation: when we held a Hanukkah event, we only bought from business owners from the Gaza border periphery; next week we will celebrate Animal Day, where we will collect donations for the kennel that takes care of dogs from the Gaza periphery; and whenever we have volunteer events, they are related to the situation - hosting a community of evacuees at the Leonardo Hotel, fruit picking on a Friday in the Gaza border periphery etc. Everything is planned around what is happening."
The key phrase: "in a manner adapted to the situation"
"It is impossible to plan for the long term, asking me about Purim is like asking about an event light years away," says Lisa Zaythik, co-founder and Chief People Officer at AppsFlyer, which develops tools for measuring digital marketing campaigns. "Obviously, this year we won’t have a Purim party where people are on the verge of getting drunk, so we are thinking about how to give attention to the employees and show that life goes on."
And this challenge is very complex. About a month ago for Tu B’Shvat (Jewish New Year for Trees), the company planned a solidarity fair which would host businesses from the south and the north and the businesses of reservists. "In the evening we set up stalls with goods of flowers, challah, dried fruits and what not, and on the morning of the event the terrible news came out about 21 IDF soldiers who were killed. We decided at that moment to cancel the fair and dismantle everything. And it's not an easy decision either. Because you don't want to hurt business owners again who were already hurting. So we bought the perishable goods from them and donated them to the soldiers in the rehabilitation departments and to the medical staff. We wanted to add value to social action and bring people together, but in the end we provided value in a different way."
"There is a certain desire among employees to receive something of more value from the company today," says Ron Gordon, marketing manager at Mavens, which develops data-based analysis tools and was acquired by the gaming giant Zynga. "If once a Purim party was like a TV ad during the Super Bowl, today it is not relevant. The ostentatious and somewhat empty things have been replaced by things with more value, such as volunteering, and this gives a good feeling.
"We are not looking to throw parties, but to get employees to connect. Do you have employees who want escapism? That's fine, but what about the 10% who don't want to party? They are no less important to me. I think that the activities that are connected to the war situation help high-tech shake off the superficiality that clings to it. High-tech today is much less disconnected."
"Everything has become war-oriented," says Noam Ben Ari, the director of welfare at the 3D printer company Stratasys. "On Women's Day, for example, we have always celebrated an inspiring female figure, and this year we chose Iris Haim (the mother of the abductee who was killed Yotam Haim), and instead of making it a celebration, we put together a gift for her with a contribution to the community, a case with a bottle of wine from a company that works in collaboration with the 'Left behind a girlfriend' for mental support for partners of fallen IDF soldiers who did not marry. Last year we organized a Purim event called the Stratasys Feast, but this year it cannot happen."
Cyber company Varonis also emphasizes volunteering in the community. At the beginning of the war, the company's offices in Herzliya were used to receive evacuees from the north and the south, after which the employees contributed from their days off to finance the evacuees' stay at the hotel. "Even on Purim this year, we will switch to a different format," says Inbal Haas, VP of Human Resources at the company. "No party, no costumes, nothing outside and no guest artist performing. It's not appropriate. We will celebrate the holiday modestly with vendors from the Gaza border communities."
Involving businesses from the Gaza border area and the north or reservists appears to be the preferred solution for most companies. Besides Varonis and Elad, Monday, Palarium and Next Insurance also told Calcalist that they will hold such events. "We are not high-tech workers who are disconnected from the people. Social responsibility has always been there," says Anat Yam, an engineer at the insurance technology company Next Insurance. "Everyone agrees that this is not the time for parties, but the reservists who fight for us also have to fight for their business. So we found a middle way so that all of our lives can continue."
Still, there is a limit to the number of events that can be celebrated this way, and HR managers are looking for more and more creative solutions. "Yesterday I had a student who told me that the company where she works recently took them to the Ronit farm for a day of relaxation - massages, yoga and at the end a stand-up show by Israel Katorza," Cinman says. "It's like saying: 'It's not pleasant to have a party right now, so let's do something we all need now.' I thought it was a super idea adapted to the situation."
Is stand-up a solution adapted to the situation?
"I was surprised too. I asked her if it wasn't strange, and she said no, because he adapted his material, and mostly laughed at the workers. I liked it."
"We held a year-end event to conclude 2023 and start 2024 in a way adapted to the situation," says Batia Shafir, Vice President of Personnel at Next Insurance. "Unlike the party with an artist that we used to do in previous years, this time we held an event inside the office with various workshops: ceramics, carpentry , cocktails, etc. Each employee could choose an activity according to their mood and according to what they connected with during this period. There was an emphasis on togetherness, on group activity. And the feedback was amazing. It felt very right."
Giving employees choice is also a recurring motif in the various conversations. "We decided that instead of making decisions for the workers, they will decide what they prefer," says Shani Dagan, human resources manager at unicorn Sisense, which developed a business intelligence platform for analyzing organizational information. And in the case of Sisense, the sensitivity to employees is especially necessary in light of the company's ongoing cutbacks - in January it laid off 13% of its workforce (about 60 employees, of which 15 are in Israel), after in July of last year it laid off about 100 workers.
How did you let the employees decide what to do on Purim?
"We prepared a survey for them to fill out. We said 'we want to hear from you'. And they chose to have a party in the office, something more modest, smaller, limited and calm given the circumstances.
"There is no one who is not touched by the war, my husband was in the reserves for four months, but people need this disconnection for a second, to go to the office and do something that is good for the soul. Why would I prevent this from the employees? So we didn't rent a place, we didn't hire a DJ, and there will be no performances. Instead, there will be a game that brings us together, it will be cool, but the emphasis is on togetherness."
Will there be a costume contest?
"Yes, because it was the request of the employees. After all, it is Purim. We are trying to maintain a kind of routine and sanity in this unusual situation. Because people need it. It is currently forbidden to do anything excessive or disrespectful, and ostentatious parties are certainly not appropriate. Therefore, during the war we only did more sane things."
Like what?
"On Valentine's Day, for example, we brought a flower-weaving workshop and held a singles event for the company's bachelors and bachelorettes. They came for an evening of pizza and wine, and six couples left with phone numbers, so it was also a success and we received amazing feedback."
"A celebration? Yes for children, no for adults. We are at war"
"Purim is my favorite holiday," says Keren Golan, People Experience Group Manager at Monday, "every year I go to parties, and invest in costumes for myself and my daughters, but this year a close relative of mine was murdered at the Nova festival, and I don't feel like I'm able to leave the house in costume. It just made me realize how much this holiday brings us a moment to stop and think deeply - because if we made even five people feel uncomfortable, that's a problem."
So what will you do on Purim?
"Something modest and adjusted. Not a big evening party outside like in the past. The goal is to create a small respite inside the office and during working hours."
Will there be costumes?
"It's a question we're still debating. But for the children, we'll probably do something in our offices, because for them it's really important."
The children are another key to cracking the right way to be happy in these sad days - because no one has any doubts that at least for them we have to be happy. But even here the important emphasis is not to exaggerate. "Having a company Purim party on which lots of money was spent and with a big-time performer and dancing - is not appropriate at the moment," says Batya Ivanizer, VP of Human Resources at the gaming company Plarium. "Yes, we need to raise morale, but in a limited format adapted to our ability to deal with the situation. We will not sit here somberly, because in the end the soldiers are fighting so that we can maintain a routine, and we have to deal with this tension. We are all hypersensitive today."
And those who are not careful - will suffer. On Hanukkah, it was decided to celebrate at Stratasys with a large and festive event with the participation of the singer Static, and not everyone in the company liked it. "You're trying to get back to a routine. But what kind of routine do we have?," says employee Assaf Ben-Attar. And Ofir Lipman, a manager at the company, is even more determined: "I'm in favor of a celebration for children, but not for adults. We are at war. We even canceled the office happy hour during the war. HR already asked us to return it, but we refused because we felt it was not right."
Even at Elad, walking the fine line between normal routine and the war evokes emotions. "I had a manager who came back from the reserves and said: 'I'm really disappointed that there isn't a wall for the hostages here,'" Cinman says.
How did you react?
"I told him that we marked the 100th day of the hostages being kidnapped, we bought flowers, hung up signs, and we are expected to host a family of abductees on the 150th day. But I will not make a wall of hostages, because who knows when it's time to take it down - and it’s difficult. As deputy of human resources, I have a responsibility to make the workplace a place that is pleasant to go to, where people smile. And it is clear to me that this is a perception that also creates conflicts."
So what do you do?
"We do things modestly. On Purim we will make Purim packages that we will prepare and donate to the young people of Kibbutz Re’im, and maybe there will be a party. In the end, the employees want the joy and escapism, and on the other hand, they want to know that the company does give and contribute. And if you create a proper balance of the two - it can work. It breaks the dissonance that everyone has with themselves, the feeling of 'how can you go out and have fun while...'
"I have an employee who returned from three months of reserve duty in Gaza and we consulted him about a Purim party, he said: 'I have to tell you that when we are there in Gaza, we fight so hard so that you can live your life the same as normal.' This is a strong sentence coming from a man who fought for months and wants the organization to throw a party and for his colleagues to celebrate. Of course there are other reactions as well. But the majority want life to just go on, for businesses that are in difficulties to have some work. 'We don't expect you to sit and cry at home,' he said: 'We are fighting so that you can live a normal life.'"
