DAVID GREENE, HOST:
Finding your happy place may be a little harder these days, but there are still options out there - taking a springtime stroll, testing out your baking skills or maybe bingeing on a show or two or 10, perhaps. And then some have found solace at happy hours - the virtual version, of course. Here's NPR's Yuki Noguchi.
YUKI NOGUCHI, BYLINE: Normally this time of year, D.J. Haddad and workers at his advertising company run raucous events around college basketball.
D J HADDAD: We were really missing the March Madness. It's kind of a big thing on our team.
NOGUCHI: Haddad works in Fairfield, Conn., with nearly 70 employees around the world. They recently invented a new sport they call March sadness, a name dripping with irony and alcohol.
HADDAD: We figured out rules for virtual beer pong.
NOGUCHI: It's a variation on a popular drinking game involving a pingpong ball bounced across a table into cups of beer, all captured on live chat.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Kick it off when you're ready.
NOGUCHI: The game can get chaotic. People often talk over one another, making the trash talk hard to hear. The images switch from one person to another, which means sometimes you lose sight of the bouncing ball.
(SOUNDBITE OF BOUNCING PINGPONG BALL)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Aw.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: I think we have to stay on mute so we can see them.
NOGUCHI: The event attracted 50 people. Diehards stuck it out for seven hours, almost as long as a workday.
HADDAD: Everybody was smashed by 11 o'clock.
NOGUCHI: Life is carrying on over webcam. Apps like Zoom, FaceTime and Microsoft Teams are fast becoming the linchpins keeping work meetings going and grandparents visiting. At the more extreme end, some are even holding virtual versions of bachelor parties and weddings that were canceled in real life. Haddad says these online shindigs have gone from fun to essential.
HADDAD: For us, the economy is a big worry, too. Like, you know, everybody is sort of on edge. Like, OK, are clients going to start slowing down? Are they going to start pulling projects?
NOGUCHI: But at least these get-togethers are helping foster new relationships, especially for those working in far-flung offices.
HADDAD: You know, we have people in Australia who've never worked with some of the people in Colorado just because they're on separate teams.
NOGUCHI: Meanwhile, in Lambertville, N.J., Justin Dunlap sits in his basement. It's quite cozy down there - not in a good way. Copper pipes hang inches above his head. This is where he works and parties. His girlfriend already claimed the sunroom upstairs.
JUSTIN DUNLAP: Which is the space that actually gets some sunlight. But I get the basement working space. Very low ceilings, too.
NOGUCHI: I ask about a scratching noise I hear in the background.
DUNLAP: That? That's the cat using the litter box. Yeah. Again, this is a really great space.
NOGUCHI: From here, Dunlap dials into weekly happy hours. He's director of business development at Blumont, which does international humanitarian work. In recent weeks, he's seen dirty piles of laundry, pets chasing balls, curious babies and automated Roomba vacuum cleaners make cameos during video happy hour.
DUNLAP: We had another colleague who, you know, showed us her vegetable garden. She's probably the best situated as a prepper.
NOGUCHI: Interestingly, almost no one talks shop about work at these events. Instead, Dunlap says, it literally gives everyone a glimpse into their colleagues' lives.
DUNLAP: When you're seeing the inside of their spaces, then it's - you know, it's really rounding out kind of the rest of the view of that person.
NOGUCHI: This has even brought out some introverts.
DUNLAP: We've had folks that have never come to our normal in-person happy hours but have dialed into the virtual happy hours (laughter), whether it's, you know, they like the venue more or what, or they're finally, you know, just pushed to the point of desperation.
NOGUCHI: Desperation for human contact, even if it's virtual.
Yuki Noguchi, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF KORESMA'S "TURQUOISE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
