Every year during the holiday season, Perficient colleagues across Southern California office come together to celebrate our collective efforts, successes and more than anything, to spend time together as a team. At a glance, an evening with coworkers might seem like a minor event, easily skipped for other commitments during a busy time of year. However, I have personally found our annual holiday dinner to be a rewarding and fun experience. I have made a point to attend for six consecutive years since I moved from Chicago to California with Perficient.
First Dinner Attended
At the first dinner I attended, I met several people outside of the account and project I was working on in San Diego, which at the time was my only exposure to the rest of our SoCal team. As a fresh transplant from another region and Perficient office, the event helped me establish a local network I could reach out to for work-related support or insight. I also connected with colleagues who have similar interests both professionally and personally, which became a building block to some of my strongest work connections today.
This year’s event brought together 50 teammates at a restaurant in Santa Monica. We enjoyed a cocktail hour, dinner and a white elephant-style gift exchange (shout-out to Eric Harvie – Account Developer, who spent time planning the evening’s festivities for us.) Feedback on the evening was extremely positive, especially the gift exchange element, including several suggestions to expand it in the future. We now have a fun new tradition for future holiday events.
Every holiday dinner reinforces why I chose to work at Perficient and strive to give my best every day. I’m proud to be part of such a dynamic, capable, determined and dedicated group of colleagues in our Southern California office and I want to honor their hard work and enthusiasm in everything I do.
Personal Reflection
In my role as General Manager for California, I interact with colleagues from nearly every corner of our company, including almost every technology and industry practice, from salespeople and solution architects to developers and project managers. That’s not to mention colleagues who provide the support needed for Perficient to function every day, such as business operations, marketing, finance, accounting and more.
Perficient isn’t in the business of “making and selling stuff.” By that, I mean we don’t sell cars, apparel, computers, or other goods. Our “inventory” is our people and that’s reflected in our core values, as our success is tied to the work they do every day.
The 2018 holiday season brought time to reflect on all that we accomplished as a team in the past year and well-deserved downtime to celebrate and recharge with family and friends. As Perficient continues to grow, especially our Southern California operations, I look forward to all that 2019 will bring and the opportunity to gather together again at the end of the year to celebrate our successes together.
