AIBU or are team building events really f*cking awful...

[rOsie80]

Especially the variety that ask you for an "interesting" fact about yourself so you all sit around and reel them off in an awkward, stilted fashion for an hour.... does anybody really enjoy this stuff ?!!

I agree, glad to have left the corporate bullshit behind.

Ok I'm on a roll now...

Do you know what's worse than team building and role play?? Those company wide events where they mix up the teams to get you talking to other people. People you have never met before and you also have social anxiety. Then they sit you on a table with all these people and get you to design a poster like a bloody 4 year old... oooh but look we have sharpies! Whoopie doo!

Why the F does an accounts manager need to build up a working relationship with Johnny from customer services anyway unless it's in the bloody kitchen making coffee??

A weekend away, sharing a room with complete strangers/people I don’t know well, sounds like pure utter hell. Nothing would ever persuade me to go on one of those.
I actually don’t mind Go Ape type things, but again I wouldn’t particularly want to do it with people I barely know.

We had a meeting at school. Lots of parents there to learn about something vital to kiddos education. The specialist started with asking all to say something that made us happy this week. I honestly felt like walking out.

I used to work somewhere where each department had a day to visit somewhere that was relevant to our speciality as professional development.

One year we worked that for the money we were given to hire a coach, we could all throw in a tenner and visit our opposite numbers in Dublin for the day. Best day ever given Irish hospitality.

Sharing hotel rooms is the worst. One of my moments of losing my mind was when as a new mother to our 3rd child, I went back to work for a week to do the training in Florida. I work in NYC. We used to always have training in our regional offices but they 'wanted us to network' in a swamp during Disney off season. They wanted me to book a cheap flight leaving on the Sunday morning and returning at midnight on the Friday. I kicked up a fuss and finally got partner sign off for the more expensive flight leaving after my kids bedtime on the Sunday, returning Friday before they went to bed. When I got there they told me I had to share a hotel room with a peer. I was horrified. I flat out refused to share. I was 10 weeks post partum and pumping all the time. The hotel manager was really good and fudged it so I wasn't sharing.

I left last year and would not recommend anyone go to big4 unless they have a firm plan in place for their exit. The though of having to put up with another 10 years of this sort of rubbish was all I needed in terms of motivation to leave.

Oh and 3 unique facts. I was like I'm older than all of you, I'm a parent and I'm married. Everyone else in the room was 25, single and even the instructors didn't have kids. Of course I couldn't say that so just introduced myself like an adult.

Tis bollocks.
When i was a trainer, the first thing i would say was "there will be no role play".
Funnily enough the whole room would instantly perk up.

I once did an our door team building day where one of the activities involved having to pick people up horizontally and pass them through gaps in a elastic rope frame.

(Stock photo from Google attached)

What a fucking nightmare that was

I once worked for a charity for whom penny pinching didn’t even begin to describe it. They sent us on a day thing (compulsory, or you took annual leave). Unfortunately they were too tight to pay for the £29.99 premier inn nearby and unwittingly booked 2 people rooms in a £14.99 local b&b. It turned out to be a back street brothel with the option to book some room company..

This wasn’t even that long ago -2013 I think!!

One memorable team-building day was us all being taken to the local rubbish recycling depot, getting gloved up and put on the line, sorting all the contaminants out of the stream of rubbish on a conveyer belt!

Must say we did all bond very well, over the sheer horror of it (poo nappies, mouldy meat) and the realisation about how revolting and lazy the average Mr & Mrs Public are! And I’ve always been careful with my own recycling ever since.

As I write this, I realise that it was actually very successful. Maybe all TBs should do something like this- spend time doing something that makes you very much more grateful for your usual workday!

Best answer ever to "what is your hobby?" was "working in insurance cos my life would be truly tragic if this was my passion"
😂😁😂😂. Only time i felt like kissing a delegate!

If you think sharing hotel rooms is bad try a bunk barn!!!! Getting to know your colleagues more shouldn’t amount to knowing Jill from accounts (who at 40 was brave to take the top bunk) farts a lot in her sleep! Most of us go to work to earn money as fully functional adults arrange to go to the pub and go home and spend time with people we actually like.

Violet I did that
Team building exercise going through gaps years ago, glad to see the industry hasn’t moved on

Yes an Endoscopy as a team building exercise wouldn't be good.

I'm not so sure. The manager of our project is a patronising control freak, I suspect a lot of us would welcome the opportunity to stuff something down her throat or up her arse, preferably without the benefit of any medication to make it less unpleasant for her.

Violet - that's the one we did. The idea was that if you touched the ropes you had to go back and start again and if three people touched the ropes then EVERYBODY had to start again.

We got bored of that and just got everyone through and then I volunteered to explain to the course instructor that as a team it's important we find a way of getting to our goal and sometimes we need to change the rules to get results, so that's what we had done here. He was not impressed but I think we showed initiative!

These are making me laugh. I like team building days!

I realise I’m in the minority here....
And in my defence I’ve never had to role play. And I hate those ‘ice-breaker’ questions.

But generally I’ve liked the teams I’m in so going out doing something different then having food/drinks all paid for has always been good with me!

Ice breakers should be illegal.

YANBU. I have one next month and I'm in half a mind to be sick that day or week for added authenticity

Do it Painted. Have your own one at home lying on the settee seeing how many biscuits you can eat in one go. And ask yourself some cringey icebreaker questions.

I've endured three of these with various employers and they were all awful, did nothing to build teams (can't remember half the people who were there TBH) and the only good thing that I got out of any of them was a knowledge of the pubs of Dartmoor which has come in useful on a couple of holidays. God awful HR shite about sums them up.

Oh the thought of these damn things make me feel sick. If I’m ever unfortunate enough to suffer another, for an interesting fact about myself I think I will say what a previous poster said:

I think I possibly would rather have a colonoscopy (than be here) all things considered.

Thanks for that

Sparklingbrook if I was a biscuit I'd be whatever one is in the cookie jar...

Just found out yesterday that we are not allowed a Christmas lunch/dinner for our team, we have to go on a team building exercise instead. Oh joy.

I expressed my reservations and was told I basically have to suck it up because compulsory fun is what you do at Christmas. Lucky lucky me.

However, it's probably going to be more of an activity than "team building exercise". The trip to the recycling centre actually sounds quite interesting. Hardly "compulsory fun" though :)