Having to pay for work team building day

[Notanawayday]

Name changed for this.

I work part time for the NHS band 3 with colleagues who are band 6/7 so obviously better paid.

Every year we have no choice but to go on an afternoons team building day. Patient diaries are blocked out so my colleagues can go and admin have to attend too.

Last year it was bowling, year before pottery painting so not too expensive.

We have raised before about the trust we work for paying for us to go as it is on work time and we have no choice but to attend. Last year a couple of colleagues couldn’t afford the bowling had to sit there and watch.

There is no way our trust will pay for this forced team building day so there is no point even raising it again.

I was on annual leave last week when it was decided by our clinicians team lead that we will all be getting the train then a tube to Canary Wharf where we will be going to some sort of quiz event involving completing puzzles. Entry fee is £25 and then have to pay for food and drinks and of course train and fare tube which we can’t claim back. Whole cost will be around£60 and we will be there longer than our work finish time.

Im so fed up. I don’t want to spend money to attend a work team building day. A lot of the clinicians I work with are looking forward to it because it means half a day of not having to see patients and of course they earn way more than us lowly admin.

I think I will have to say I can’t afford to attend and will stay at work and actually do my job. I know already how it will pan out, constantly being pressurised to attend, being told I will have a good time and how I have to go to be part of the team etc etc

I’ve worked in further education and the civil service and never had to pay to attend a work team building day and yet the NHS managers think this is ok?!!!

Sounds like you need to start saying no more.

I bet if you push back on this you'll be told none of it is compulsory and you're choosing to do it.

Because admin is more generic and easier to replace and retrain?

Just don’t go? They can’t force you to pay for these activities.

I would refuse to go if I was expected to pay for it.

Would you be happier if everyone just monotonously sat at their desks / stood in their cubicles and work robotesque on exactly their tasks for no more than and no less than the specific times defined on their contract with no thought to or need for team cohesion or morale?

surely you can see part of the business case behind such events is improving team cohesion, relationships, and hopefully indirectly retention of key personnel?

£2k is a drop in the ocean when it comes to having to replace key personnel, and that’s if you even can. It’s better to help them enjoy their work environment rather than trying to suck the life out of it by parring it back to the bare bones tasks.

I wouldnt go. I think its ridiculous, Id be raising it again. Who's deciding the activity? Why cant the admin suggest something free? Why cant you stay home or sit in the office? Id really hate socialising with people tone deaf enough to cost their staff this much to go to an event

How is this improving the work environment? do tell?

What an outrageous waste of everyone else's tax! There is no way they can make you pay for this. No is a complete sentence. I'd complain to my union if the school I work at tried to do this. Not that they could or would! Can you imagine, cancelling kids lessons for us to go on a jolly? I think its appalling that no appointments are made for patients for this. Can you whistle blow?

I’d be happier if people did the jobs they were paid to do, did appropriate and accredited training and development that supported the organizational strategy, and didn’t have to use their own money or time to satisfy the social needs of someone paid twice their salary.

There’s nothing to stop those who want to go out after, but if the department has identified that ‘team building’ that literally excludes other people is required then they need to fund it. Nobody is saying ‘don’t have a jolly, but it shouldn’t be done on company time, and it shouldn’t disproportionately impact financially on lower earners or people with different priorities.

<Would you be happier if everyone just monotonously sat at their desks / stood in their cubicles and work robotesque on exactly their tasks for no more than and no less than the specific times defined on their contract with no thought to or need for team cohesion or morale?>

If your workplace is like this because you can’t go ferret rustling on a Tuesday in Ealing then you have bigger problems.

And yet, as mentioned by you earlier, this appears not to be the case here. These events have been going on a few years and the team is split with feelings of being lesser. Could that suggest, do you think, that these specific team building outings are not working?

people, over the past few years have sat feeling left out due to not being able to afford it.

wonder why they don't feel like a team 🤷‍♀️ could it be that they are not being treated as one?

Im admin so not part of a union.
There is absolutely no reason why admin staff cannot join a union. The only thing I would say is that unions don't usually like taking on an issue which happened before you joined. But - this is an on-going pattern of totally outragous expectation so you might be lucky. Find out who your unions reps are and have a chat with them.

I would also be approaching HR - I know, I know they are there for the organisation not the employees, but they really don't want this type of bad blood hitting them if the local newspapers find out ...

And keep saying no.

I agree with you, it’s not fair you have to pay for this.

Also awful for those who had to go and sit there as they couldn’t afford to join in, defeating the point of “team building”.

Can HR help advise?

Joining a union is a helpful insurance policy to protect yourself at work. Should you ever need to use them, you need an established membership for them to represent you at meetings etc.

There will be part time fees and vary by band.

This is a form of bulying at work! You absolutely cannot be forced to pay for a team building day (unless you had agreed in your contract of employment which is doubtful!) I would raise this as a formal grievance and contact your union (if you are in one) and ACAS for independent employment advice

I have a business, but I have been subjected to this ‘enforced fun’ as an employee in the past. Most people got to work for the money, not the social life. My colleagues weren't all crap, but I wouldn't necessarily have chosen to be mates out of work with everyone, just because we worked in the same building didn't mean we had anything in common. I choose to spend my spare time with people I want to.

Yes.
Surely you can see that not everyone enjoys having to attend ‘fun events with colleagues’? Although you’re probably one of the bully competitive clinicians.

@Notanawayday en mass sick day?

How is this team building when some people can’t afford to take part but still have to attend?

In the past I have had to go to "team-building" days that the company paid for. The only part people enjoyed was the buffet and drinks, the actual activities were ghastly. It was private sector and the company could afford it but it was a total waste of time and money. We bonded as a team anyway and went out together voluntarily, not at these enforced occasions, which involved the whole company and other departments. We had to pretend to be interested in each other's jobs - we weren't.

The problem with some of these work places is that if you don't participate you are seen as "not a team player" despite the fact that you couldn't afford to be a team player. The same applied to staff collections. A young relative of mine complained to HR that she felt "bullied and humiliated" because she could not afford to contribute £10 to a gift for someone she had never met. HR subsequently banned office collections.

I find this "team player" thing a bit strange TBH. I mean what does it actually mean? Why is it a good thing? How does it help the service delivery for people to go bowling together?

good for you op
and as for paying for the Christmas meal in work time, so ridiculous
you must have a small department or something that is making ridiculous requests like this.

I have never heard of this happening (thankfully) in the many years I’ve worked in the NHS! We have audit half days every couple of months whereby there are clinical meetings and learning for all.
I know of one Trust who have had occasional away days which are supported by charitable funds but frankly even these are not appropriate in the current dire situation.

“Bully competitive clinicians”. Clearly I’m not, even statistical odds would tell you that. I also love how you are seemingly against people that are competitive. As if being competitive is a grave sin 😂

I think you might be missing it for what it is

Not usually. Team “away days” are funded but they focus on work-related problem solving and team building (as in listening to everyone and spending time in a more relaxed environment). Some of it may be fun, but more as a by-product. Usually there will be sandwiches of dubious provenance and terrible coffee. If there’s an overnight element there’s dinner and breakfast, or a subsistence allowance. A case needs to be made for each event.

in my experience the senior staff generally put a bottle of wine on the table or buy a round, or bring nice biscuits for a day event something. Using their own money of course.

I think team building/ away days should be banned unless they are actively planning service development.

They are banned

In the public sector team building has to have explicit training goals, and then any costs paid through the training budget and if valid travel & subsistence claims.
Recommendations are that the venue should be on site or at other public sector facilities (to avoid / minimise costs) - they can be elsewhere if that is justifiable such as for dispersed teams that involves travel no matter where the venue is or the venue is appropriate for the type of business

I looked up the latest on the MoDs policy yesterday, a recent document explicitly pointed out that participants cannot be spectators (which rules out the OPs previous bowling) cannot be individual activities (which again rules out the bowling —- unless someone wants to try and explain how one bowling lane score being added up as a “team”
contributes to “team building”)

In my post the other day I referred to team building vs team cohesion, and have confirmed the difference in the MoD.

Team building is funded from the training budget, and has to meet goals
Team cohesion does not and can include social activities. It is funded through the official hospitality budget and therefore has to meet strong criteria to justify spending public funds on a social activity
(Among the documents I checked one is from a different MoD branch and prohibits Team Cohesion from anyone but serving military)

Every example that the OP has given is a social activity that people are being made to self fund
Not team building