New job is making me stand in front of the entire department and say a 'fun fact' about myself - AIBU?

[thisisnotforme]

I started a new job recently, I've mainly been working remotely so have only met a handful of colleagues.

There is a big departmental in-person meeting next week, I am already dreading going to it because I'm really nervous to meet people in real life, even though I have been speaking to them on Teams I'm still nervous.

Today I got an email that they are going to use that meeting to introduce me to the team and they want to stand up in front of everyone and say a fun fact about myself.

I'm really shy and this is literally my worst nightmare.

@TheLightSideOfTheMoon

“I have crabs and two of them just escaped..”

"Hi, it's great to be here. My name is ... and my favourite pass time is dragging Insulate Britain protesters out of the road and sending them packing with a footprint on their arse"

They'll love you.

Fun Fact - I hate making up fun facts and standing in front of strangers and telling them my fun fact -

I agree with the others make one up and rehearse it in your head a hundred times so when its your turn it just comes out and its over with !
Seriously don't know why companies do this to their staff - NO BODY ever likes to do that!!

I hate things like that, too, but the anticipation is worse than the thing itself. Just come up with something, doesn't matter what it is, and try to forget about the whole thing until the day. No-one cares. Most are barely paying attention. You won't enjoy it, but it will be over before you know it.

This is sooooooo migraine inducing. If you can't get out of it go for something basic....If I could choose a superpower it would be......

I have no fun facts. I am not fun,

I sleep outside from March to November. Does that count?

I cannot think of a single other "fun" thing about myself.

But honestly, it doesn't even have to be fun or interesting. You're ticking a box for your boss.

Something like I have a pet dog/cat/rat would be sufficient.

I agree, @Ellmau, it can be something ordinary like having a dog. But I don't see why this has to be seen as just a manager "box-ticking". If there's someone new in a team meeting, I've told everyone their name, and they've not said a word, I genuinely feel as a manager that I need to encourage them to talk - to build some kind of connection.

So, if they say they have a dog, I can say, "a dog, Jenny? oh, yes, Gary's also a dog-owner - what breed do you have, Gary?" Maybe Jenny will then start talking to Gary.

Is that so terrible?

I hate this. I have no fun fact or nothing interesting to say about myself in these situations.

Fun fact… when I get nervous I imagine everyone else in the room naked… then look slowly around the room with a horrified look on your face

@Hexinthecity

Fun fact… when I get nervous I imagine everyone else in the room naked… then look slowly around the room with a horrified look on your face

Then point to someone and say they need to see a doctor because "that isn't right!".

@viques

“Here’s my fun fart. Oh, just a minute, I seem to have misread the memo”

This is my favourite post on this thread

Love the vaginal warts idea...in the shape of Elvis s quiff too...go for it. 🤣🤣🤣

It’s everyone’s worse nightmare.

3 years ago I started an NHS training course.
We had to 'introduce ourselves to the room, giving our background and personal circs' (!), then we had to do a memory game where each person said where and when they'd last been on holiday, then we had to give 3 facts and 1 had to be a lie and the next person had to guess which was the lie and you had to confirm / deny. It went on all morning. I absolutely HATED it.

Fun fart...that made me laugh out loud. Was just imagining the op saying here's my fun fart and then letting rip 🤣

Poor you…I really sympathise, when I had to do it I panicked and in a room full of law firm partners blurted out that something interesting about me was “I eat a jar of marmite a week”. There was pin drop silence and then someone kind of retched and said yuck. I’m sure y do better than that.

@thisisnotforme

I'm glad you all can sympathise, I'm really surprised my work is making me do this to be honest. I already had to say some fun facts about me when I first started, I wasn't expecting to have to do it again...

I'm trying to think of some fun facts but sadly I'm very boring.
A famous actress did once nearly knock my drink out of my hand once, is that a 'fun' fact? Emphasis on the "nearly", though...

I was once crossing the street and almost got run over by a car being driven Vince Clarke with Andy Bell in the passenger seat.

I tell people I was nearly erased by Erasure.

The only thing worse than the "fun fact" is the "most embarrassing moment"..
like really....
Am I really going to stand up and say "Yeah, hi, my name is fumfspos and my most embarrassing moment is when I got absolutely wasted on absinthe in Andorra ending up lying on a pool table, then falling off it and pissing myself everywhere on the way down".
No, I'm not - and every other embarrassing moment in my life pales into insignificance beside that.

@HappyDays101010

I am suspecting that a lot of people on here don’t work if the idea of something so basic seems difficult. It’s literally one sentence.

Well quite. It’s not like they’re asking you to take your clothes off or abseil or anything, you’re just being asked to introduce yourself, very briefly, just do it.

Mumsnet always seems to hate anything about normal corporate life.

This really is normal.

Hate shit like this - go bland or silly but be brief

My names Amanda and I have 3 chickens

My names Amanda and I am married to Banksy...but don't tell anyone

Fuck knows why or how.

And definitely don’t use “I’m shy / nervous “ or anything- that’s all anyone will ever remember about you.

@SchadenfreudePersonified

I can put a whole cream egg in my mouth.

Does it make me a bad person that I would be impressed by someone who could do this?

They’re tiny now though. If you could fit a creme egg in your mouth in the 1990s, then I’d be impressed.

I've had to do this recently. Lots of people's fun facts were things like 'I like walking with my wife' and 'I like eating out in restaurants'

I said I appeared in an episode of Last of the Summer Wine as a confused bystander, the one when they slide down a hill in a tin bath. I made it up of course, but it had the desired effect of livening up proceedings and giving people a 'handle' for me. I don't think anyone doubted me, or if they did they didn't care enough to check out my backstory

Oh no, my toes are curling on your behalf OP. It's like joining a sorority and having to go through an initiation rite. There's nothing worse than having to engage in enforced jollity.