Turning the Page: How a Book Club Sparked Connection in a Hybrid Workplace

By Mercedez L. Thompson, MA, CP APMP, Shipley BDC

It was 2:11 on a Tuesday afternoon when my colleague pinged me on Teams: Sorry, but I think we are canceling book club this month. Only four of us accepted and now Courtney has a client conflict.

I replied moments later: Are you kidding me?! Noooo. I was really looking forward to it.

If my reply conveys disappointment, it didn’t scratch the surface. Book club was set to begin at 2:30. Not only had I read that month’s 300-plus-page book, I’d blocked off an hour of my day expectantly, wrapping up most of my work responsibilities by 1:30. I even took a walk around the block to clear my head of the big pursuit we were trying to win and refocus on my notes, the questions I wanted to raise to the group. October’s pick was a mystery, a perfect fit for spooky season. I was itching to find out if Kate had predicted the twist, or if Ben found the narrator unreliable.

The disappointing ping came just as I was making coffee and slicing up an apple, antsy to sit down with my snack and my New Yorker-worthy analysis. Now, it was canceled. My notes, pointless. The stimulating conversation with the smart people I spent 40 hours or more a week with, not happening.

It’s hard to describe just how much this club had come to mean to us over the last ten months. To understand, you’d need to know what that year of book club had done for our company culture.

More than a year ago, the firm’s leadership—representatives from every department—had met to address our declining workplace culture. COVID had taken its toll on us all, and we weren’t sure where to go from here. Though the hybrid work model felt essential, it also left employees feeling disconnected and disengaged. We didn’t want to lose our flexibility, but we also needed to bring our people back together.

While we didn’t miss the 7 a.m. commute or scrambling for after-school care for our children, we knew something intangible was missing—the organic moments that happened at the printer or in the break room. We needed to reconnect, to bring back the human element of work: the small talk, the shared stories, the little insights into each other’s lives beyond the office.

We experimented with various ways to rebuild that sense of community. We launched a mentor-mentee program (which fizzled after two months), scheduled monthly team-building events (which required ever-larger incentives to boost attendance), and started a “lunch and learn” series where colleagues could present on projects or share insights from new industry trends (this one, thankfully, was going strong). But the book club was different. It wasn’t just surviving; it was thriving. Why? For a few key reasons.

First, the book club meetings took place during work hours. For many of us, juggling family, hobbies, and work meant that time outside office hours felt precious. Though we read the books in our own time, the flexibility helped—some read before bed, others on the treadmill, others at their kid’s soccer games. So unlike other initiatives, the book club didn’t feel like an additional work obligation bleeding into our free time.

Our book selections were as varied as our participants. We quickly realized that focusing on narrow genres or themes, like summer beach reads or only biographies of famous entrepreneurs, limited the club’s appeal. So, we made sure to mix it up. Each month brought a new theme, alternating between fiction and nonfiction, with everyone contributing to a list of suggested titles and then voting anonymously. With this diversity, attendance soared—so much so that we were sometimes forced to split into smaller discussion groups.

The conversations were low-stakes yet engaging—refreshingly different from work talk. Somehow, it gave us back the freedom to connect on a personal level, a freedom we’d lost since remote became the norm. But it wasn’t just small talk; it was more meaningful, thanks to the unique way books invite us to share perspectives and connect over human experiences. Through these discussions, I learned Sruti also had a three-year-old son. I found out Jeff often went off camera during video calls because his three cats loved to make surprise appearances. And I was surprised to discover that my boss was a board member of an art gallery.

Lastly, the book club brought people together from across the firm, ultimately helping us excel at our jobs. Interacting in this setting encouraged not only connection and friendship but also trust, which made cross-departmental collaboration and innovation easier and more natural. As employees got to know one another outside typical work discussions, they became more willing to reach out, brainstorm, and problem-solve together. What started as non-work-related conversations ultimately seeped into our work lives, strengthening bonds and making us a more productive, cohesive team.

It’s not exactly surprising that we needed to rebuild community. After all, we’ve known all along that it’s essential for fostering employee satisfaction, engagement, and long-term retention. When people feel a genuine sense of belonging at work, they’re more likely to be invested in their roles, collaborate effectively, and feel motivated to contribute to the company’s success.

It took the disappointment of a canceled meeting for me to realize just how much these monthly gatherings had come to mean. What started as a fun way to chat about books had become an unexpected source of connection and energy for our team. In a hybrid world, it turned out that a little time spent discussing mysteries, memoirs, and personal development books was exactly what we needed to bring us closer together and keep us excited about the work we do.