Rather than my family or mobile, both of which are invaluable but not so secret, I’ve chosen my weapon to be 4.30pm every Friday.
Not because I am hotly anticipating my weekend but because it is when we at Twitter UK congregate for a drink, some snacks and to see out the week together.
What makes it so special is the background and what it represents. When I joined Twitter in late 2012, there were 25 of us in the UK. We were crammed in a small serviced office. Engineering, sales, media partnerships and comms all sat shoulder to shoulder. I mean literally that; there was no space.
My desk had a pillar in the middle of it. There was a computer server in the corner loudly buzzing away. On top of that, there were more dead mice than toilets (two mice versus one toilet).
In those days, Tony Wang, our former managing director, hosted the sessions. We sat on some tatty sofas (a flat-pack put together by someone in the office), chatted about big moments on Twitter that week, and new starters were asked to randomly do impressions (Tony’s idea).
What was incredible, though, about this period was how all the above built our culture. As there were so few of us, everyone worked harder than they ever have before and collaboration was the only option. But through this, we had so much fun every single day.
Today, we are no longer 25 people but closer to 200. And we have moved into an office with full-size desks and an appropriate number of toilets. We still have our session on Friday at 4.30pm, where we rotate hosts, welcome new starters (no more impressions), celebrate wins and still always have a laugh, which is often at my expense (search Twitter for evidence of this).
Maintaining this culture is critical to us – to make our 200th employee feel as much a part of the team as the first one. This 4.30pm session goes a long way towards doing this.