Connecting with Co-Workers

The hardest part of company growth is ensuring employees feel part of one team and know the people working alongside them. As our offices expand and new talent is on-boarded, it’s important that we institute programs that keep staff connected. A few years ago we rolled out the Mythic Donut Bot network. This is an opt-in Slack channel that people can join and are randomly paired up with someone in the company every two weeks. Once randomly connected, the employees can find a time to chat.

We don’t set the ground rules on how long they need to speak or the topics they need to address, we simply encourage curiosity and respect of their peers. The response is tremendous! Some Mythic Donut Bot members share their thoughts and appreciation for the network:

“I enjoy using the Donut app to meet different people across the company that I would normally never meet in my everyday work. It’s interesting to learn about different functions of the company and to talk with people from different backgrounds.” – Scott Johnson, Principal Custom Design Engineer

“During my first year at Mythic, at the height of the pandemic, I only went into the office once, just to pick up my laptop, and I mostly only interacted with just one person every few days.  Then along came donut-be-strangers to the rescue, vanquishing my feelings of isolation, helping me make meaningful connections with my geographically dispersed coworkers, and consequently improving my productivity though better teamwork.” – Eric Crawford, Staff Emulation Engineer

“When everybody works in the same office, you naturally know your colleagues, and you understand what is happening across the company. It is great to feel connected, and also to have some feeling of the company life seen from angles other than your own. Being remote, Donut helps me do all of this, and more: I just like chatting with smart and nice people.” – Evgeny Shapiro, Staff Software Engineer – AI Engineering

“I enjoy “donut” calls because they give me a chance to connect with my colleagues in a way that doesn’t happen during a normal workday meeting or typed conversation (Slack, email, etc.). We’re given permission to talk about our interests and our lives outside of work. Sometimes the sharing occurs organically when a pet or partner walks into the camera view or a kiddo laughs in the background. It also expands my work contacts since I don’t work directly with most of the people I’m paired with and wouldn’t otherwise meet them.” – Violet Green, Senior Technical Writer

Donut Bot is a great way for existing employees to get face time with others that they don’t work with regularly, and also meet and connect with new hires as they get ramped up. Donut conversations are typically not work related so it’s a nice way to unplug from technical conversations for a bit and learn more about the human side of our colleagues, from what they like to do for fun and their personal interests to details about their family and lifestyle. The Donut Bot network continues to grow and we encourage all Mythic employees to try it out!