Forced fun at work

[chocolatesaltyballs22]

Since we've all been WFH my boss has made it his mission to force us all to have 'fun' at work. Things like daily quizzes, film yourself doing something ridiculous and post it to the Whatsapp group, wear silly headgear for the weekly team video call. I'm finding it all a bit draining. I know his heart's in the right place but I constantly ignore everything and he's making me feel bad. I'm the oldest in the team by nearly 10 years and I feel like the old grumpy one, but FFS really?! AIBU not to be arsed with this rubbish?!

Tell me what your teams are doing to keep spirits up and lets see if I can make some constructive suggestions to improve the current silliness!

We have an official group with our manager and one without...

Ha ha sounds like my new boss!
She wants us all to be one big happy team... but we are not.
We are all furloughed just now and she’s encouraged everyone to join that houseparty app........ I didn’t, only one out of 10 people not to. I don’t need that shit in my life...

@podcast that sounds horrific. And typical of something that I've experienced!

Worst team away day for me was an army assault course thing, in the the pissing down rain, everything knee deep in mud. Now I'm not unfit, but I'm certainly not as fit as my 30-something colleagues. So yeah, not exactly inclusive!

After my post earlier, my boss tried to do a group video call this morning. The horror

Oh god, did you pretend your camera wasn't working?!

I've just spent 15 mins putting on full make-up for a Zoom call which was planned in for today and he's bloody moved it to tomorrow! What a waste!

"Dh dialled into a conference call with his clients this afternoon and was rather bemused to find them all playing musical instruments."

:)

Escape is the Only Options your meetings actually sound quite nice...

Do it, don't do it.
I worked with miserable cow who didn't join in anything( fine, not compulsory) but also had a face on her like a wet Wednesday every time there was a bake sale or whatever on. And like to tell everyone how she hated it blah blah blah.
At least the rest of them can't see your face glaring at them.

@chocolatesaltyballs22 he did it on WhatsApp so I just ignored the call as I was on the phone to a customer
I have no makeup on and pjs, we aren't customer facing and never work from home so video calls not needed!

Ha good plan...I don't mind planning for video calls so that I can make myself presentable but to do it out of the blue? Oh no, out of order!

Yeah. Just don't do it. Eventually someone won't do it with you.

Be grateful you still have a job and a decent boss trying to keep up moral.

Yes you do sound like the miserable old one.. :(

Oh god the kids on video calls is just the worst. I get that your kids are at home and make noise but there’s one guy in our office who is very senior and his child is there for every single call! His wife is a Sahm so I have no idea why they don’t just go into another room or why he doesn’t just sit in the bedroom or something. It’s also not cute or funny for people to actively get their kids to join whole company video calls at the start of each week.

I’m also very anti activities before or after work. I don’t socialise with colleagues normally, I just don’t get why they all want to sit on their laptops having a quiz together on a Friday night!! I will admit I am quite grumpy though and sure other people enjoy all this forced fun

I’ve just had a team invite to a 5pm Friday night bring your own booze quiz 🙄🙄🙄

Disappointed there are nasty, anti-disabled (or just plain mean) comments about “miserable cows” who don’t enjoy forced jollity.

I did a group away trip once and they suddenly sprang on us that the final event would be a very boozy party where “everyone gets super wasted.” At the time I was teetotal and being around drunk people was a major PTSD trigger due to childhood sexual abuse. I very politely said I’d be passing on the party and was forced to sit on a chair in front of the entire leadership panel while they screamed at me and tried to break me down mentally so I’d capitulate. A year later they were still bitching about me online as the uptight bitch who ruined their fun by refusing to participate.

We're having a daily meeting to keep in touch. We consist of 2 teams, from 2 different geographic areas, who've been squished together to make one big, happy team. Only we're not. The highlight is a 'daily tip' which is invariably cringe-worthy. The other day the tip was 'don't eat too many biscuits'. After a discussion about what people's favourite biscuits were. It all just made me want to comfort eat biscuits to squash my feelings down.

Embrace the grump OP. Be one with it. Join us other Grumps.

We have twice daily teams calls. Fine in theory but I'm the only member of my team with kids. Everyone else is going on about the series they're bingeing on, getting a new PB, trying new lunches. I log on at 5:30am so I can work and home school and cant be bothered with all the extra crap. The teams calls aren't that bad but I've had to mute the team WhatsApp group. The sillytexts start mid-morning and often dont finish until midnight when they're all drunk. I'm so pissed off at them I just seethe in my little ball of rage all day

OMG are you in my team OP? We have daily quizzes, constant WhatsApp team calls. Silly photo of the day, whole office singalongs. Weekly online drinks, online yoga lessons, fancy dress meetings. It's weird that I usually work in a fairly toxic and aloof environment but suddenly we are tucked up in our own homes and they are now concerned about our mental health and well-being!

Ha don't think I'm in your team @gemma2019 but isn't it odd how everyone wants to socialise with their workmates more? I don't dislike mine, just don't really need the extra time with them. But I accept that some do.

And to the PP who said I should be grateful I still have a job? Of course I'm grateful for that. Everyone is offended by something these days...

I have just googled "forced fun" and this came up. All I can say is Praise the Lord! I have just come off an hour call for a team quiz. I tried to duck out because I am busy but my boss tried to add me in twice and twice I declined. I explained I had work to do and would join later but I really didn't want to. My team share the same sense of humour, there's a lot of childish giggling going on and I am amazed that they don't have better things to do during the day. They also have check in and chat calls twice a day for 15 minutes which we have been told are optional but they're not really. I feel under pressure to join in with things that I am not interested in and with people I find irritating. Should I speak to my boss about it or 'play the game'???