To feel like resigning to avoid a horrible team building event

[evilharpy]

It's been announced that my team (of about 15, all of whom I like but most of whom I don't know very well at all) is being sent to a team building event at the end of February. It's three days. Residential. Outdoor physical stuff. In February. It will be wet and freezing. We will have to share rooms. I hate the outdoors, especially when it's wet and freezing. I hate physical stuff unless it's a nice gym-based class. I will have to buy suitable outdoor clothes. And most of all I hate hate hate sharing rooms even with very close friends and will be desperately uncomfortable and miserable the entire time. The only way it could possibly be worse is if it involved camping.

I won't actually resign obviously (for one thing my notice period is longer than the end of Feb) but I will probably worry about it every single day until it's over.

Has anyone been on anything similar and can either confirm that it will be miserable or convince me that it might actually be fun?

But if I was going I would wear t shirt, jumper, waterproof coat, cotton trousers, long johns, thermal vest and cheap comfy trainers that can be trashed

Apart from tailored raincoats I literally do not own anything in that list.

Some great stories though - love the mass paintballing of the boss!

Team building is babble. Pay them enough, let them go home on time, ventilate the office, sack slackers, don't have favourites even if you are having sex with them, reward hard workers and don't chuck the toys when you are told something you don't like. Management 101.

You don't own a t shirt or a jumper -wow

LassWi what the hell do you wear?!

I wear dresses mostly. I wear very smart , tailored clothes to work, mainly dresses but some skirts and jackets. I don't like trousers and I loathe jeans- I think they are hideous and boring- same applies to trainers.

Out of work I wear less formal versions of workwear (although if I wore my non work clothes to work they would all pass as work wear compared to what other people wear) At the moment I'm at home and I'm wearing a merino wool dress from Orla Kiely and a long wool cardigan from Hobbs.

What's with doing outdoor activities in winter. Particularly those that involve getting cold and wet and not being able to get warm and dry.

Out of season is cheaper. HR need to cut costs somewhere......

Lass Do you never do any exercise then? Play with the kids outside? Go for walks?

Before I had kids, I worked in an office, and had a wardrobe similar to Lass. I had jeans for out of work, because I like them - but I had no gym or outdoor wear. Because I didn't need or want it. My leisure time was London bars...and I was skinny then.

Now I've got the dc, I have plenty of outdoor wear because I walk the dog and do some outdoorsy stuff with the kids. I have gymwear because I took up yoga, and dance classes to lose the baby weight

Lass Do you never do any exercise then? Play with the kids outside? Go for walks?

What a bizarre question. I walk loads- every day- why would I only be able to walk if I owned dull and boring clothes?

My son is all grown up. I played with him when he was little but from 7 or so he would be out playing with his friends not his parents.

Lass your wardrobe sounds fab!

Who cares what kind of clothes lasswidelicateair wears?!

She can wear a feckin trouser suit 24/7 if she pleases!

I live in a city, I go on holidays in cities. I was brought up in the countryside in the middle of nowhere. I have no desire to revisit it.

Who cares what kind of clothes lasswidelicateair wears?!

It is a derail but the point was the OP's employers should not assume that everyone has suitable clothes for this activity.

And I agree with the poster who said that depending on the degree of getting cold and wet involved jeans and trainers may well not cut it.

I only asked because I was surprised. I go hiking and play sports, and even those who dress stylishly normally own trainers, t shirt and jumper. I am genuinely surprised that someone who is not very old does not own 1 t shirt or jumper.

Well there you go crunchy your horizon has been expanded.

And as for jeans being fine , jeans are not recommended wear for hiking or hill walking. They are made of material which doesn't breath, gets easily soaked which makes it much heavier and it doesn't dry well.

Pay them enough, let them go home on time, ventilate the office, sack slackers, don't have favourites even if you are having sex with them, reward hard workers and don't chuck the toys when you are told something you don't like. Management 101.

I would add: and don't tolerate, or worse, enable the shit stirrers.

Sorry not read all the responses but this is exactly the sort of thing I hate with every bit of me buuuuut I make myself do and it's never as terrible as you think it's going to be and then you're so glad it's over and so proud of yourself for surviving such a shit time of it.

Another hell of mine is hen dos but I drag myself along to them too and always glad I have when it comes to the wedding and I know people

From a site giving advice on hill walking safety.

When jeans get wet, they stay wet, become heavy and leave water next to your skin, meaning that you cool by conduction 25 times quicker than if your trousers were dry. Remember - getting cold and wet are the main causes of hypothermia

Hopefully some fashion victim will see that.

But the poster who never leaves the city and spends a lot of time indoors has no need of useful clothes. Fair enough.

Any more than I have fugly staggering shoes, frumpy floral dresses or clunky handbags covered in logos.

Be 'ill'

Not sure if that is directed at me but I would never be seen with anything so crass as a logo on bags or clothes. Don't outdoorsy type clothes often have logos?

There are two kinds of outdoor clothes. The specialist clothes that are expensive. Genuinely useful if you are going to hike the 3 peaks, but over the top for a 5 mile walk in local countryside, And then just ordinary comfortable and warm clothes. The first has logos, the second rarely. As I said the farming side of my family are all outdoors all year round working in jeans, wellies, jumpers and waterproof coats. Not a logo in site. Although they all used to wear barbours about 40 years ago when they were cheap and not trendy.

And hypothermia! Give me a break. It used to be practically impossible to buy specialist trousers. I and others 4 decades ago would go hiking up hills in jeans. But we were not stupid about it.

In a team building day, everyone would go inside if it was sheeting it down anyway.

This is hilarious

I would honestly rather be dead than have to go on a thing like this. Christmas staff ‘parties’ are bad enough without dragging the horror out for days on end doing awful, awful things. We get paid for tolerating the other employees, I would not be around them if I wasn’t getting paid, at best they are nothing to me.

Please post more stories of what happened at ‘team building’ events, they’re like a real life horror story for me, I can’t look away!

It's about superficiality and looking good not tackling a problem and reeks of magical thinking. Like lots of other bizarre and pointless rituals like school uniforms or the Sacred coffee cup.

Don't do anything like actuality talking about useful things during an appraisal like morale, management and and people go home on time. Just have a pointless team building day which won't accomplished anything but will make it seem like you bothered.

I remember the appalling bullying at an Audi dealership where a young apprentice took his life. The management said they would have team building days to solve the problem. As if building a fucking raft will magically currently a culture of bullying that management are aware of but haven't been moved to act.

To the OP if they really want team building off site to mean something they should let those who are to participate choose the activities not have them thrust from above.