Workplace kindness, human connection, and the quiet everyday moments that remind you why the people around you matter — these stories prove that the heart of any job is the people in it. Some offices have a baker who recreates TV cooking show dishes just to see coworkers smile. Others have a remote colleague who drives in once a month with homemade sausage rolls and quietly disappears. Turns out, the best reason to show up has nothing to do with the job description.
I work remotely, and we have an important day: Cat Friday. Every Friday, everyone shares cat photos in the chat — their own, someone else’s, even random cats spotted on the street. One of the managers showed off a gorgeous Thai cat. The chat practically melted with adoration: “Is that yours?” He replied, “No, it’s my neighbor’s.” Then the next week, he posted another photo, this time with a ginger kitten — round eyes, a carrot-like tail — and wrote, “This one’s mine. Couldn’t resist. I want to join Cat Friday too.”
At work, we bring treats to the kitchen for tea. We have fans of tiny bagels with cream, and if someone brings them, one coworker regularly proposes to me as a joke by putting a bagel on his finger — it’s become a tradition. I tell myself he has a difficult character, and if we start dating, we would break up quickly, and it would never get to a real ring. Working in the same office with an ex is not the nicest experience. Better to stick with bagels and friendship.
12 True Stories That Prove Kindness, Compassion and Love Can Light Up Even the Darkest Moments
I got a new job, and all the ladies at my new job are married. But they all criticize their husbands. Just a couple of months ago, during a session of complaining about their husbands, I mentioned how my sweet and handsome husband made pasta at home. That’s how it all started. It turned out that almost everyone’s husband is wonderful. Praising their husbands slowly became a tradition, and now while having tea, they say, “Girls, can you imagine what my husband did!” The ladies have blossomed, and surprisingly, things in the office have taken off.
I transferred to another department, where there’s a tradition called the “Red Folder.” Once a week, it’s secretly placed on someone’s desk. At first, I was afraid, thinking it was fines or a reprimand from the boss. But when the folder ended up on my desk, I opened it, and instead of reports, found notes from all my coworkers with compliments for my work and a couple of movie tickets. It turns out, this is how we choose the “hero of the week,” who is officially allowed to finish work 2 hours earlier on Friday.
We have a woman in customer service that works fully remote, but once a month she will come in and drop off a box of homemade sausage rolls and go back home. They are unbelievable as a snack, but I’m unsure how the whole thing came about.
We have a keen amateur baker who loves the reality show The Great British Bake Off. He tries to recreate the winning showstopper after every show and takes it in the next day to share. We are fully flexible but almost everybody comes in that day!
We have a tradition of drinking tea at our office. It is so strong that we even formed a club called “Mad Tea Party.” The agenda usually sounds like this, “Let’s sit down and chat about our business.”
Apparently, our employees have a lot of free time. I discovered this piece of art and was really charmed by it. Who knows, maybe one day this masterpiece will make us rich.
In our library, one room gets locked up around noon, and the staff settles in there to have tea with meat pies. One day, a lady from another department rushes in and says, “Girls, is there something missing?” The head librarian sighs and responds, “There are no men in the team, Anna!” The lady is taken aback and says, “I thought maybe I’d grab some sausage to put on the table too.” We laughed so hard, we scared off the readers.
A guy joined our crew. One day, he comes to work with a huge cake. “What’s this? Why?” “It’s my birthday today. Help yourselves.” We treated ourselves to it. But we didn’t realize at the time what would happen next. The following month, Stan showed up at work with a cake. “What, am I some freeloader or something?!” And so it began. Every month there was one, sometimes even 2 tea parties. This went on for about 3 years. Even after the guy left, we kept celebrating birthdays. Then one day, someone groaned that they couldn’t eat so much sweet stuff anymore. And that was it. The tradition was quickly forgotten.
We have a tradition at work where you bring candy on your birthday, and put it on each employee’s desk. Just like we used to do it in our school days.
Our MD is a massive cricket nerd. So every year in July we have a voluntary inter-departmental tournament officiated by him. Awards are given for best shots, most entertaining, etc. The rules state that the person has to be working in your department throughout the tournament. So now, us senior managers actively shuffle staff between departments trying to get the best teams and it’s not unheard of for catching skills to be asked about at interviews leading up to it. Our logistics manager has openly had conversations notarized by HR like this: “What are your catching skills like?” “I’m very good at catching mistakes.” “That’s brilliant, but I meant actual balls. Do you enjoy playing cricket?” HR *inaudible grumbling*
We get together at a restaurant at least once a month. It’s usually a Friday lunch. Also, every week someone spontaneously bakes cookies or pies, and the boss brings croissants once a week. No wonder I can’t lose weight.
We visited friends over the weekend, and a French friend shared that they have breakfast together every Monday. There are 14 of them in their accounting services company. Each takes turns once every 14 weeks bringing croissants, chocolates, or rolls. Then they all have coffee or tea together and share how their weekend went. I think it’s great. There are 4 of us in the office. When we arrive, we dive right into work. The only tradition we have is a Christmas lunch at a restaurant.
When we get to our desk, we log into Slack and say, “Morning.” People usually react with a little wave emoji to your login message. Except for some reason, on Fridays, people react with a little image of Rebecca Black.
At work, it’s a tradition for everyone to contribute an equal amount to a gift envelope for someone’s birthday. No one minds, and in the end, all the money you put in throughout the year comes back to you on your birthday, like an interest-free cycle of money.
There was a tradition at work to draw a gift every Friday. It started when someone didn’t eat some tasty food at lunch. We decided to draw papers from a hat. Whoever drew the winning paper would win and take the gift. So we decided to do this intentionally every Friday. We drew for candy or pickles. Everyone wanted to come up with a more interesting gift. It was fun and entertaining. Someone could win twice in a row. I never won. But then came my last workday before maternity leave — and the long-awaited victory. It felt like I’d won more than just a treat. I went on maternity leave feeling happy.
Some workplace traditions get passed down through years of team changes without anyone quite remembering how they started. Others begin with one person who simply wanted to make a Monday feel a little less like a Monday. Either way — they stick.
Does your office have a tradition like this? The same kindness that makes an office feel like home has a way of showing up in families too. These real-life stories of family love and human connection are proof that the warmest places are built by the people in them:
