Team building days- do you hate them?

[Stressedgiraffe]

Inspire by a thread.
Why is there so much hate about team building days?
I've attended loads and organised some.
Usually they are ok, even fun sometimes but I've been lucky and generally like the people I work with. Some when I don't really like the team have been horrible.
I've got a team building event next week and will be doing everything that everyone seems to hate : travelling on the bank holiday to get there. 6 hours travel time. Staying in a hotel for 2 nights. 2 day team building . Travel 6 hours back.
But I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully it'll be fun.
So I guess my aibu
Aibu- team building is ok even fun!
Ainbu- team building is the spawn of the devil and all should be banned!

I just want to do my day job and go home. I don't want to spend longer than necessary chatting to colleagues I don't care about. I don't want to spend a day or two doing pointless tasks that have no relevance to my day job to come back to a backlog of day job as I have been building towers for 2 days.

They are horrendous.

I just want to go to work, do my job and come home again. I don't want to faff about doing stupid games or quizzes like I'm about five years old.

I'd be annoyed at having to travel 6 hours on a BH eating into my family time but otherwise team days can be okay depending what it is.

I hope the team are getting double pay for the bank holiday travel ?

I don't even want to go for a quick drink after work, let alone 12 hours travel, some of which is on a bank holiday and is also in half term. I'd rather eat my own eyes.

I loathe them - all that falseness and pretend frivolity. Total waste of time. I just keep hoping that one day they’ll burn out.

Yes I hate them.

No way I’d give up a Bank Holiday.

Bloody hate them. Enforced “fun”.

Why can’t they be done in working hours, in the workplace?

I hate giving up so much of my own time. I don’t want to be around other people for so long.

I wouldn't be fancying travelling for 6 hours on a BH or weekend!

I dislike team building if it's the happy clappy type, I have work to do - which just builds up for the whole team if we're all away for a few days. It makes us have to work extra hard before / after to get everything done!

I enjoy my job and the people there. However I don't want to do the whole "bring your whole self to work" etc - you don't deserve the full me in work. You get the staff member you paid for, nothing else 😂 I will happily do a training day that is practical!

There is value in team building but it doesn't have to be 2 days away. An afternoon workshop with lunch or drinks is more than enough.

I wasn't that bothered when I was single and had time, although I've always hated the HR activities (usually involving sharing some kind of personal information).

But now with kids etc it would be a nightmare. I only go to our national meeting once a year (I don't like it but it's the only opportunity to see the field employees).

of course i hate them
i dont want to socialise

They are shite generally. The only one I’ve ever enjoyed was volunteering at a food bank and that felt like we were doing something worthwhile. No way would I be travelling on a bank holiday to take part in such tedious nonsense.

Loads of people in my last role couldnt just "do their job and go home". They needed to understand what management was doing, feel aligned with the company, have a sense of purpose that fits with their own values. They were younger people for the most part and doing the role because they believed it's important and they really felt if done wrong could cause harm. They didn't have any natural off switch and never thought "oh well I did my bit the rest isn't my problem". I think this is quite common now in knowledge production businesses or charities or social interest businesses, certain areas of govenment or campaigning organisations.

This means team building isn't just a frothy nice to have. If I didnt make sure of constantly checking in, mental health plummeted. Nothing got done.

In hybrid workplaces where i am now if you don't have a bit of face time you start assuming bad intentions from everyone you work with- and get suspicious. That sense of a vacuum drags in everyone to a negative spiral so team building is all about reversing that entropy really.

I like my team well enough but I'd rather spend the time with my husband and children. My work is very busy so time away from my desk makes my working life harder.

Absolutely hare compelled ‘fun’ - it’s anything but.

I want to do my job, be polite and courteous to my colleagues and go home. I would rather pull my own teeth out with pliers than do enforced stupid games that do absolutely nothing other than piss half the attendees off who would rather be tortured than endure this nonsense

In hybrid workplaces where i am now if you don't have a bit of face time you start assuming bad intentions from everyone you work with- and get suspicious. That sense of a vacuum drags in everyone to a negative spiral so team building is all about reversing that entropy really.

🙄

I hate enforced fun and think that people who enjoy team building activities must have no friends or no life outside of work (sorry but you asked!)

I have absolutely zero interest in having anything but a professional relationship with any of my colleagues and that can be built during work, I don't need to go to fucking Zip World with them to be able to work with them.

Pretend to hate them, secretly love them.

I didn't like them in a previous role , but I have to admit I did feel closer to my colleagues at that company

Team building is outdated crap

it baffles me that companies still pay for this nonsense and the ones where you have to share something about yourself people just make something up so that they can move on to the next person

So pointless and as others have said o
you just worry about the work building up

I used to enjoy them when I was more junior because it was a day off work doing something a bit different.

Now I hate them because I know my work is backing up and I'll spend the rest of the week working additional hours to cope.

They also don't really do what they aim to do. Friendly types will 'team build' naturally at work anyway.

St no point would I have enjoyed six hours of travel on a BH because nothing is more fun than my own family. I would only consider that if it was an event abroad or somewhere I genuinely wanted to visit and could now do so courtesy of the company.

Building a bridge out of spaghetti and marshmallows with Darren from accounts doesn't help any of the problems I face in my day to day role.

In the majority of organisations it's a sticking plaster to foster a bit good will for a short period instead of management trying to solve issues long term.

Loath them.
Fucking loath every second of them.
Been on loads. Total waste of my time.

The backlog of work when I get back adds stress and irritation onto the day/s wasted on this shit.

I don’t know a single person except you OP that enjoys them or more to the point, gets anything out of them.

I wonder what percentage of my colleagues, if asked to vote for and against them anonymously would vote AGAINST. I suspect it would be 99%.

Im not fucking interested in the fucking animal Karen from accounts would be and why, neither do I care about the interesting unknown fact about Brian from IT.

Hideous.

I don’t think they achieve what they say they will. Can’t stand them myself. Most of the ones I have been on involve outdoors type of activities which are not my thing. Lost count of the number of rafts I have built over the years.

One memorable one I went in involved the spider web activity where you have to get team members through the holes of a rope web, which for the higher holes involves 2 team members holding up one team member and passing them through to 2 other people on the other side. Most people had teams of 6 or more. For some reason we only had 4, one of whom was in a wheelchair. We got penalised for not finishing the task!

The only one I enjoyed was when we had a conference in Paris and they had a mini team building event which was a treasure hunt round the main sights. We were also allowed to go early and stay the weekend before and have partners join us. And that was before we had DC so didn’t have logistics of childcare to sort out

Not working now but my old workplace loved them. There was one that required us to go away for the night. It had ridiculous, waste of time exercises followed by a meal (which was nice) and then basically everyone getting absolutely plastered. And the usual Christmas party like antics ensued. There were work events planned for the following day and most people were completely zombified. There was zero benefit in it that I could see and the cost (to a company funded by the government) was massive.