Ice Breaker WHY?

[Icebreakhell]

A work meeting next week has scheduled a 1 hour!! Icebreaker where we’ve been asked to bring a photo or object that is meaningful and talk about it for 2 minutes!!

What sort of arsehole invented this stuff. I’m not an oversharer and I’m working on my weekend at the minute as we’re so busy. I font have time for this bullshit.

Feel like getting out if it will cause more stress than sitting there cringing, slowly dying and not listening to a word others stay as I’m do mortified.

Surely this sort of thing is now being discouraged by HR?

Just take a picture of somewhere you have been on holiday. It's only 2 minutes, you can share the bare minimum.

I had to draw a pig at mine at mine the other week ..... ridiculous

Don't over think it!

Most people will forget and then just show the screen saver on their phone and say their kids/pets/last holiday is meaningful to them.

Job done.

A pig 😂for all that is good- why??

2 mins is a long time to bang on about one’s holiday

I would be trying my damnedest to not go to that bullshit. If I was forced to go then I would make it clear that I had nothing I wished to share and would be keeping my private life private.

Perhaps have an urgent meeting that you can't postpone scheduled for that hour?

I work in HR, run training courses and I completely agree with you! That one sounds particularly bad as not everyone feels comfortable speaking in front of a group, especially for a couple of minutes.

The aim will be to transition you away from the day to day work and to get to know other people better but there are less cringey ways of doing that.

They won't time you.

Of a group of 10, 6 will say their phone, 3 will say their handbag and one will have something prepared.

By the time you are on the 4th phone people will just be saying 'what she said '.

I’m not a fan of this stuff either, particularly on Teams. How many people are in the meeting? 2 minutes each if there’s more than 5 of you is just wasting time.

Suspect they have said 2 minutes just to make it clear it isn't 10 minutes with a PowerPoint.

I hate it when they say “tell us something interesting about yourself”… I instantly forget everything I’ve ever done and feel very boring.

This sums it up for me...

from www.basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2018/6/14/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-a-group-exercise

Bloody hell we had a half day of this in an NHS team meeting during a time when we were crazily busy and didn't have enough appointments for everyone. We should have been at work!!
I always do the blandest thing possible that tells nothing about my personal life that they don't already know like my nursing graduation day at university. Relevant to the job and impersonal.
We had other people showing pictures of their family pre divorce then bursting into tears, crying over the death over their grandma and someone else divulging their pagan practices.
Absolutely cringe worthy and inappropriate.

One of the pleasures of starting my own business was having the freedom to avoid this kind of bullshit on training courses/seminars as I now choose the training providers myself.

If I have the misfortune to attend a course that does anything like ice breakers or personal introductions, etc., then that's the last time I'll attend any course provided by that training provider, and I make them fully aware of my decision/reason too.

Luckily for the past decade or so, I've weeded out the idiotic providers/lecturers so have managed to successfully avoid this stupidity for a long time now. It's nothing but time wasting. For people who want to socialise on a works course, there's always the pre-course coffee, the lunch break, the mid-session coffee breaks, etc. So much of a half day or full day of training is wasted anyway with one thing or another, so wasting another hour on an ice breaker or introductory speeches is just wasting everyone's time.

Yeah nobody at work needs to know I'm a naturist 😂

Hope you kept it for your “bring a photo meaningful to you” moment.
😉

I'd have loved that! A pig is about the only thing I can draw!

I would “forget” and not do it. Fuck all that shite.

At one we were asked to stand on chair without shoes and arrange ourselves by our birth months, Health and Safety ignored.

We had to do an icebreaker type thing at a training course I went on recently. I got paired with a bloke, got told to take one step closer together and stare into each other's eyes for the count of 15 seconds whilst answering questions in between. I hate being told as an adult to do this type of thing that's just designed to humiliate. Next time I'll say no.

I've done this one too and it was awful. Most took the piss and a couple took it uber seriously.

My last one was 'go around the room saying your favourite ice cream flavour'. What was the point?

OMG it’s two minutes. They are trying to get non work conversation going between people. You are overthinking it. I would consider taking a pic of my desk if it bothers you that much and talk about work.

This stuff is the worst and it always gives the over-sharers licence to wang on more than they usually do!!!!!

My work is obsessed with this kind of stuff and the “bring your whole self to work” tedious crap. I feel like the people who enforce this stuff don’t have friends and family to share things with outside of work. What wrong with a little professional distance between work and home? Also if I make connections at work I want them to be organic not forced through an ice breaker!

If you are an introvert that two minutes might as well be an hour!!

Take inspiration from countdown, an interesting fact about yourself? 'I once kicked a dog to death' or whatever other ridiculous thing you can come up with. That should get the conversation going/stop it dead...as that dog 😈 I really hate these icebreakers