Team building days- do you hate them?

It depends what it's like.

I've been on team-building days that were within working hours that I didn't have to travel for, and at which we got a nice lunch and most of us went for drinks afterwards. The activities were just fun stuff - creative things, quizzes with prizes, a Belbin/Myers-Brigg type personality analysis sort of thing. Everyone genuinely enjoyed it, as far as I'm aware. I work with really nice people and we generally get on well and have a laugh anyway and it was nice to be out of the office and use different bits of our brains for a day.

I've also been on team-building events that required tedious shit involving flipcharts and then having an awkward meal with a bunch of people I didn't like very much, while also having to try and keep up with all my emails and calls that I'd get on a normal day. That was fucking awful.

If I had to spend six hours travelling on a bank holiday to get to a team building event, I would be telling my employer to fuck right off.

I've been on a couple of teambuildings that were basically just a day away hanging out, which I still hated because they were on a weekend eating into my free time, and sleazy behaviour from male colleagues was rampant. Once I decided I won't go anymore... well, it hasn't made any difference to my working life, nothing bad happened. Since then I just get to hear the post-mortem reports on who hooked up with who, or who groped and harassed who. I think if more people who hate these events had the guts to refuse, they would die a swift death.

The activities described in this thread though are shocking to me. Pasta towers? Den building? It sounds so childish. Why would anyone over the age of 12 put up with being forced into such silly behaviour?

Fucking hate them, I'd rather have the portion of money you'd be spending on my travel, hotel, exercise, food/drink in an Amazon voucher as I'll still be exactly the same after an exercise, but I'd be happier as I could have bought something useful instead.

My favorite team building story is one where senior management mandated that each team have a team building event, and my friend who is a team leader and an introvert organized hers at a coffee shop where each of the team, also mostly introverts, brought a book to read, which they did silently for most of the morning, then had a communal lunch and went home.

Old company used to do these and they were horrendous. Activities chosen for the few by the many that had nothing to do with work and actually caused more team divide than team building. New company has the right idea - quarterly meeting somewhere (not too far) away from the office where we get the chance to learn what others are doing, chat to those we might not see much and have a nice catered lunch with an early finish. Regular social events during work time throughout the year but these are optional.

Like Hell would I do this on a bank holiday though. YOU might not have much on but others will. If it’s typically a non-working day then you don’t agree to work on it without significant compensation and you should have the option to decline altogether. Anything else is madness.

I'd be so fucked off with a weekend thing. The absolute cheek of them

I made myself a member of the awkward squad forever with management when I asked for a day off in lieu for 'voluntary' softball with colleagues in the park on a Sunday.
1/ So presumptuous to think staff should give up their own or family time when we already work over and above during the week.
2/ softball? We are not an Amercan company. But there are too many Shermans in middle management, too many of whom live only to work.
3/ I hated rounders at school.
(I didn't get the day off and skipped the enforced and super competitive jollity).

Either that or a toxic work environment where being seen to be present is more important than being seen to do a good job. A failure of management / leadership again, not hybrid/home working

I don't like forced team building events. Luckily my workplace don't really do them. We have a team day but it's not cringey, it's all work related and interesting.

I do like more natural team building like going to the pub with my colleagues etc and wish there was more time for that!

I managed a team and schedule team days once a year. They're always during the working day, finish after lunch and everyone gets to go home early. No building towers or rafts or anything else like that. No complaints so far!

Oh my, I can see where 'our lot' get their ideas from 🙄

That's awful altogether. That's the bare minimum like. That said, I could never eat our bought in lunches as I won't eat mayonnaise and they always insisted on that rather than butter. So I sat at the end of the table, looking ruefully at the sambos 😂

Nope🙄The funny thing is, they have an HR campaign at the moment saying what a great employer they are, and we brought in loads of money last year, so we can certainly afford two dozen sandwiches and some bottles of water! The lack of awareness and care is astonishing.

I enjoy them! We are a small team who work remotely so I enjoy getting together and doing something fun during work time. I also genuinely like the people I work with.

They don't even buy you lunch 😮

Dear lord that’s reminded me of when I worked at a management consultancy and they used to bang on about this all the time. Management consultant team
building is even worse than the normal type 😂

Our annual "away days" are held ... in the office downstairs 😂 and we are asked to bring our own lunch.

Full of the same corporate bulls**t that everyone else has mentioned, so I won't repeat it again here.

I think it depends, I did one recently abroad and it was great but I really like the company I work for and like the people I work with. Also my DC are older so being away from them for a few days is fine

Ive worked at places before where I’ve not really got on with people and was expected to go away with work colleagues on days I wasn’t at work and I really resented it (also didn’t go as had small kids which I used as a get out clause 😉)

Hate them with a passion I'm afraid. Especially the ones that force you to stuff you don't want to in order to 'bond'.

Usually I'll end up going for a drink after work with colleagues Iike at some point. That's all the team building I need.

I did wonder! What a load of corporate speak gobbledegook!

Well here's the thing. OP is likely to have a number of introverts in her team. Everyone will have. These events can also be difficult for people with disabilities or caring responsibilities, or those who aren't neuro typical, as we've seen in this thread. Their views and comfort levels are just as important as everyone else's if you are truly focused on building a happy, cohesive team.

Traditional team building exercises only really cater to extroverts.

So, if they do achieve something, it probably won't be for everyone on the team. So they aren't 'team building' at all really.

I just read that article and the very term "choose your attitude" made me see red. Talk about corporate victim-blaming shit.

Waste of time, massive waste of money. Outdated.

If you’re in private industry, I guarantee that your customers would much prefer then end product was marginally cheaper. Wasting money on team building just means everything costs more.

What the actual fuck??

Hello, Chat GPT!