Does anyone else hate ice breakers in meetings?

[asblindasabat]

I bloody hate them. Sometimes I just don’t know how to answer them. For example, “what are your dislikes?” - I can’t think of anything appropriate to respond to that in a professional environment - saying I dislike fake people probably wouldn’t look to good!

I also hate “what are your favourite movies?” - I don’t really watch movies so I couldn’t tell you the names of most of them and it really makes me look boring!

anyone else just hate them?

Tell us something no one knows about you - I particularly hate that one

Also, any of those 'let's go round the table and introduce ourselves' - have trainers/presenters not realised just how anxious that makes people! The feeling of dread as it it gets closer to you. No one is actually listening to who is talking, they are just internalising what they are going to say .

yes I especially hate "a brief introduce of yourself" that reminds me of my non-achievement, no progress, lack of ambitious, stuck at a dead end job for 5 years

I inadvertently told the truth at the last one of these I had to do. It was a job centre mandated course, where they lie and say there's a guaranteed interview at the end but there never is, and they stuck us in an overcrowded room, with chairs I couldn't sit on for more than 5 minutes and the toilets up a flight of stairs and no working lift (reasonable adjustments and accessibility, what are they??! 😐🤔) so I was in pain and pissed off anyway.
then they asked "what would you buy if we gave you a million pounds right now?" and I said " coats for my sons and some food" and it all went quiet.
Apparently I was supposed to say a yacht or a Porsche 😶
It's not like any of the people there would ever even meet again, so why they bothered I don't know! Just teach us the shite, give us the "qualification" and let us go home!

Why? Because it’s pointless shit. If you need to train me then get it done and let me get on with my life. I don’t need to play a parlour game first, I’m an adult.

I’m willing to bet you would get the same result by passing round a couple of plates of biscuits. It would get people chatting to the person next to them.
Look at the answers here. Everyone hates them and they spend the rest of the training annoyed.

😂 I'm literally crying with laughter!
I'm also apparently the only one in the world who likes icebreakers and team building days.

Mumsnet is a particularly miserable demographic though.

Once the awfulness of the ice breaker is finally over you then go on to more 🙄stuff like splitting into teams, electing a (generally reluctant)speaker for your team etc. Make up a zany team name and come up to the front and write random words on a flip chart to be picked apart by the other teams.

😴

Mumsnet is a particularly miserable demographic though

I disagree. I think MN is on the whole honest about things that are a waste of time. Nothing miserable abut wanting to skip the BS and get on with things.

I like the idea of them, but I hate the naff style. In my place of work we’ve had the something interesting about you, 2 truths and a lie, favourite biscuit, introduce the person next to you…

All boring. Trainers need to up the ante and think of better ice-breakers.

I have just remembered a training course I was on with work colleagues.

We were asked to write on a post-it something we liked about someone else in the room and go and stick it in front of them. It was excruciating. I was given a post-it with ‘I love your smile’ (which may have been sarcastic).

Or how about the trainers get on with their job and spend the time "training" which is what the participants are there for??

Mumsnet is a particularly miserable demographic though.

What's miserable about biscuits and unforced conversation?

Says a trainer! How about actually taking on board the views of the participants?

I hated the damn things and when I was working for other people, I would often pull a sickie to avoid one where I'd had previous experience of the provider doing infantile ice breaking tasks.

For the past 20 years, I've run my own business so get to choose what courses I go on. Any providers who do ice breakers don't get any repeat business! I now know which providers just get on with the training without the stupidity, and they're the ones I use exclusively. Any flyers from the others go straight into the shredder and emails go into spam! It's very empowering to be able to avoid the stupidity.

And, yes, the ones who don't do ice breaking are just as good - still plenty of participation, plenty of chatting at the coffee breaks, etc. You really don't need children's party games to get adults talking to eachother!

You really don't need children's party games to get adults talking to each other!

Exactly. It's all very patronising.

I'm an extrovert and I hate them. Inane and wastes so much time pretending to listen to people who rattle on and on loving the sound of their own voice. Whatever the question is. (Hobbies, favourites etc) I just say I don't have any/one.
I remember somebody once had a panic attack while we were doing one.

I hate them. As others say, it's just forced conversation where some people are probably lying anyway, whereas it would be nicer to just have an informal chat with people!

The worst one I ever did was where we had to go round the table and tell everyone the best gift we ever received and who it was from. Started off not too badly, as these things go it gave a bit of insight into people.

Then some dickhead bloke says "the best gift I've ever been given are my children, from my wife" I didn't know whether to throttle the sexist knob or throw up.

But then, every bloke in the room clearly thought he was going to sound like a right bastard now if he didn't say his kids. So the rest of the ice breaker was just 20 blokes all giving the same answer!

Even sitting here on the sofa with a coffee completely relaxed I can't think of the best gift I have ever received, I would need to have a long think. Being put on the spot in front of people-not a chance.

Do you remember the phase when you all had to say how long your worked at the organisation? The trainer would say something like 'Isn't it wonderful ... we've got over 75 years of experience in the room?' ... not so wonderful the following month when the redundancies start !

I hate them more than anything. They really trigger my social anxiety and I could honestly have a full panic attack waiting for my turn.

No, they don't work! They are horrible and unnecessary! What's wrong with just introducing yourself? 'Hi, my name is Spring, I've been teaching for 29 years. I'm head of Early Years and Key Stage 1, and I'm currently teaching in Year 2!'

That's all they need to know about me...I'm not their friend and honestly, don't wish to be 🤷‍♀️ So, I'm not joining in with any of the other shit! I refuse!

My school joined an academy chain a couple of years ago, who bloody love all this crap...it's nonsense! I'm not sitting in a meeting of other key stage leaders from other schools, wasting precious time doing these ridiculous bonding tasks...I don't want to 'bond', I just want to have the meeting and get back to my children!

The only people that enjoy this sort of shit are the facilitators , who bounce around like an overexcited head girl/boy clapping their hands and giving condescending 'well done you' type remarks.

They’re come up with by extroverts and think they’re great fun and everyone likes them. They make the more introverted cringe and die a bit inside, but because no one every complains the outgoing ones carry on doing them because “everyone thinks they’re great fun” ….errrrr no we fucking don’t, we just won’t say it because it’s not in our nature

No it’s not.
I also think it’s the demographic most likely to end up in some bullshit training course.

It’s weird how the facilitators don’t have to join in with the awful ‘getting to know each other’ Ice breakers. We’re stuck with them for the day/week so they should at least do it as well.