#TheBoysClubKaren // Meet the Karen Superstars who Juggle Work and Play

#TheBoysClubKaren // Meet the Karen Superstars who Juggle Work and Play

The urge to become successful is overwhelming in this fast-paced world. 

Dealing with long working hours has increased employee stress. This has seen employers constantly working out ways to ensure their employees are not burnt out and are fit to perform in the best possible way. 

Focusing on sports and wellness alongside work is one of the ways to ensure good health and employee productivity.

In an ideal scenario, one often looks for a perfect workplace. A place that provides a supportive setting and encourages a healthy work-life balance. Incorporating sports as an essential part of the office program can help in the quest of achieving that goal.

Organizations must remember that the employees are their assets. The wellness of the organization depends on the well-being of its employees. They must offer such ambience which always brings the best out of the workforce.

Providing hygienic infrastructure, wellness privileges, and uniform growth prospects should be their responsibility. To achieve the perfect work-life balance, organizations must always promote a fit lifestyle. 

And one of the ways to achieve a healthy lifestyle is by encouraging participation in sports activities. It is not easy to quantify all the positive impacts of sports in the Corporate world. From clear health benefits to employee engagement and boost in productivity, the gains are immense.

However, in most workplaces, setting up sports programs is quite rare. Well, as wellness programs now start getting incorporated into the workplaces most HR departments are still struggling from this front.

Coworking spaces strive to offer spaces that help their members connect and network not only from a work perspective but also outside the office place. One such scenario is our Karen workspace where members came together and started off a football club.

It all started earlier in the year as a #JoggersClub, where a few members came together after work to run the WaterMark Business Park after office hours, maybe to release the day’s tension or basically keep fit.

A month later Stanslous Maina, -Dash- Cafe Barista happened to attend one of the matches at Karen Ligi Ndogo and actually organized a match with a few members. For as little as KES 200 per person for every match, the first lot of about 7 members formed a group and started off with fortnight matches.

Samuel Kyabuntu Mpyana, Education & Training Program Officer for Africa at KidsOR who was among the first people to join the team told us what drove him to joining the team,  “Football is my passion; I have played football since I was 7. An opportunity to exercise after a busy work schedule is an opportunity I wouldn’t miss. I am actually one of the founders of the team alongside the team captain, Maina. The team was founded in February 2022.”

Not even the rains could stop them. From a 7 persons team to over 26 team members the guys have now set-up a whatsapp group and has grown to attract other entrepreneurs from outside the Nairobi Garage Community.

The recently held match at Karen Ligi Ndogo

The team has also gone forth to sign-up for friendly matches and now all the team members are looking forward to Thursdays that happen to be their match days.

The match takes place at the Karen Ligi Ndogo field at 5:30 pm and it is quite interesting to see how they prepare.

“Apart from helping me to keep fit and enjoy the sport I love; it is also a platform for networking. The team is made up of people from several companies, organizations and firms within the Nairobi Garage, Karen Space. I therefore have an amazing opportunity to network and build connections,”  said Kyabuntu.

To start off the team members change into their kits, break into two teams, then a warm-up session begins at 5:30 pm.

Just like the American Soccer, they have 45 mins of play then a half-time break then they come back for the second half which goes for  another 45 minutes of play and then at around 8 pm they are done.

Once in a while other members also join in not to play but to cheer up ‘The Boys’.

When I attended last Thursday’s  game, one member was leaving the country for further studies and it was amazing to watch the ‘boys’ give a lap of honor and bid farewell to him.

This goes to show not only show how the community has grown but also how out of the community they have all found a sense of belonging and also strengthened their brotherhood

Moving forward, the #BoysClub as they have fondly called themselves now looks into not only playing the game but also finding time to have Real Men Talk to enhance not only their physical health but also mental health and well-being

They would also like to  increase their membership and have a fully-fledged team with their own resources

According to Kyabuntu, so far they have had about 2 friendly matches against other teams. They are now looking into having these regularly and remain competitive.

“Ideally, if other Nairobi Garage branches would create teams, we could compete against them and even hold frequent tournaments. We are also looking forward to creating deeper connections and networks that also enable us support each other, not from a physical fit only but also from a career/business standpoint and as well as mentally” concluded Kyabuntu.

With such initiatives coming up from coworking spaces, it goes further to show the collaboration and networking aspects as benefits of coworking spaces.