When Plans Shift, We Shine

Employee Appreciation Day, the Ingenuity Way

If you asked us, we would say we’re a pretty efficient, dare I say, “agile” team. But when it came to our Employee Appreciation Day outing this year, we realized planning casual, fun get-togethers at Ingenuity is a wild west show. 

Last year, we went on a shopping spree to Costco and it was tough to imagine what could be better than that.

The Brief: Top Ingenuity’s 2024 Employee Appreciation Day

Meghan and Greg presented three options for this year: 

• Supermarket Sweep Part Two: Trader Joe’s edition. A shopping extravaganza followed by lunch or dinner.
• Ingenuity hits New Haven! A visit to the highly acclaimed Yale University Art Gallery, marvel at all the super-smart students at Yale, and sample some of the best pizza in the country for dinner.
• Ingenuity takes on the Big Apple! Attend a Wednesday matinee of Cabaret starring Adam Lambert, plus lunch/dinner. 

Wow, they really get us. 

Two of us didn’t have the attention span to read past “Ingenuity visits the Big Apple” and quickly voted. Somehow, we all made the same choice, and by some miracle, we were all healthy when the day arrived. NYC, here we come! 

I was so excited we were seeing Adam Lambert that I listened to the entire “For Your Entertainment” album on repeat just to get hyped. No one else took my music recommendations seriously. Christie listened to SZA on the train ride in. 

We had a lovely lunch at The Marshal that fit all of our dietary preferences – two gluten-free, one vegan, and two people with an affinity for truffle fries. And that’s when the news hit our inboxes. 

Email notification: “Adam Lambert” will not be performing in Cabaret today. 

😭🤬🤯😥💔

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop

But this is what we do; we’re “agile”. Earlier, we made two stops at different Starbucks, and both times, Christie’s order was wrong. No big deal. Meghan, our HR lead, had forgotten the plot to Cabaret, and by intermission, she was stressed, thinking, “Maybe this is not the most appropriate show for a work outing.” We disagreed. Greg was relieved he wasn’t the one who had selected the show. 

Post-show, we stumbled upon a lovely kosher restaurant for happy hour—serendipitous after seeing Cabaret. While we shared delicious food and toasted the day, I found myself appreciating that these are some of my favorite people in the world. We laugh our way through the highs and lows and all the adventures in between. We love experiencing new things together, even when life throws us a curveball. We all appreciate good food and enjoy walking—some of us at a quicker pace than others! And we felt the love on Ingenuity’s Employee Appreciation Day.