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!

People who are good at working in teams don’t really need them and people who aren’t don’t seem to benefit from them.

They are horrendous. The OP's team day sounds like a nightmare. Give up a bank holiday? SIX hours travel? Hell no!
I absolutely do not want to sacrifice my personal time to play children's party games with random colleagues and be asked intrusive personal questions. I honestly think there is something wrong with the people who organise these things. I refused to go to our last one. They had to travel two hours there and back to go for a nature walk in the rain, sit through a patronising presentation about work life balance and then play blind man's buff etc all afternoon, and also deal with a work backlog the next day. You can't force fun. Leave people's bodies and personal time alone.

I worked somewhere once where they did good ones - a day out somewhere fun (theme park, fun activity) and for the first couple of hours you'd sit in a nice board room with snacks and tea and the company would talk about their plans, goals, celebrations etc. No contributing required. Then you'd be put in groups and go off to enjoy the activity - no structure, management mixed in randomly etc.

A work day fine. A weekend away on a bank holiday with so much travel - no.

They are not fit for purpose, that's why I hate them. The way to build a team is to promote to management level people who aren't wankers. To have them run meetings well where people's relevant work expertise is respected, their contributions acknowledged, the schedule of work clearly mapped out, and suitable people flagged as troubleshooters if any problems occur.

Building a fecking raft competing against other teams building rafts just highlights one person's fear of water, another's dyspraxia, a third person's tendency to get aggressive when abnormally stressed. It teaches nothing about effective workplace team building. It's a faux-camaraderie.

I don't like them at all. When I've been forced to go, they generally include some kind of bizarre physical activity. As a disabled person, I struggled to join in and so ended up mostly watching and definitely NOT feeling part of the team.
I also had one where we were expected to go overnight, but I was a single parent to a young child with no support, so I couldn't go (I certainly wasn't paid enough to be able to book someone to look after my child overnight and didn't want to anyway). I got told it would reflect badly on me afterwards, as everyone else managed it. And it did. Again, didn't make me feel warm and fuzzy love for the company!

If it was the sort of team bonding that came about in 9 to 5, I might be interested. 😏

Absolutely hate them with a passion.
In my experience they are simply a corporate funded piss up which HR then spend months unpicking as half the attendees have got up to no good and everyone gossips about for months afterwards.

Now public sector and very grateful that I don't have to go to these things. We do have team building exercises in some meetings though and I hate those too.

How very random!

And that’s fine if a theme park or activity is something you enjoy but that’s my idea of the day out from hell. Bad enough to endure when my son was a kid but to go to Thorpe Park with the accounts and finance teams is my idea of torture.

I know! Apparently it involved the unsuspecting participants having to wear different coloured hats reflecting their moods or something. It didn't go down well. She's found her niche now though 😁

I have been in the workforce for over twenty years and have yet to attend one that I didn't find tedious, boring and utterly pointless-and those are the ones that didn't eat into my own time. Would happily never attend one ever again-in fact I think I'd PAY to not attend one.

I'm ok with them if they achieve something. Eg new team who all work remotely - it's probably a good idea that people feel like they know each other better after the event. In reality most of the time you do an activity, get pissed, then carry on exactly as you were before

I’ve been working 37 years and echo that. Once worked for a bank where the Christmas party was mandatory and staff were fined for non attendance. I just paid up. Even the fact my aunt passed away the morning of the party wasn’t considered a valid reason to not attend.

Ive done a handful of team building days and without exception they were pointless enforced faux fun nonsense. I can honestly say I was a good manager because of my work ethic and attitude towards my team, not because I completed a jigsaw blindfold with Darren from HR or scored a strike at a bowling night.

Hate them. Last one I went on was a 5 hour train journey, I refused to go up the night before so missed the first 'activity' which was den building, yes den building. Second activity was making a map out of nature. Drinks then a meal seated with random people that you don't work with and probably will never speak to again, a quiz and then everyone getting to various stages of pissedness, some of the grads having to be sent to bed and then a business briefing the next morning. I swear you could have got drunk from the fumes in the room and people were actually falling asleep. 5 hour journey home.

I did many years ago go to one on Windmere which was ok, canoeing paddleboarding etc but as you someone said upthread Bob in accounts with dodgy knees and back probably wouldnt have enjoyed it much.

I won't go on anymore although they seem to have been canned now thankfully.

Absolutely this.

I had to go on one where we had to share bedrooms! WTF?! Why would I want to do that? I refused to share and said I'd pay for my own room if I absolutely had to go. They relented and paid for me to have my own room, which triggered a lot of bitching and moaning from others who hadn't dared ask.

All such nonsense! Everyone just splits off into the groups they feel comfortable with. And those on the 'outside' stay firmly on the 'outside'.

I really don't get why the OP says she has to 'get my face and name known'. Surely if you're good at your job that happens automatically?

And if it doesn't happen. Who gives a shit?

The meal and one down the pub after deadline weren't terrible but weren't huge fun either however actually team building things I hate.

First graduate job had 2 weeks intro - whole office block dedicated to it - had to stop mid week in hotel. First week was fine but second was sick of the fancy hotel food.

We thought we were being evaluated over the two weeks - when we asked though we weren't so then thought they were getting us set up in their international system - my new office had no idea I was turning up when I did. Only ever saw one person again from two weeks and they were in a completely different departments.

So I have no idea what the point was - it just delayed started on a project desperate for people for two weeks of random crap - cost me train fare over and taxi.

All subsequent one have been along similar lines - random shit for no obvious purpose so I hate them from outset.

However I'd be seriously miffed if I missed out on family time at weekends/evenings due to them.

@JustGotToKeepOnKeepingOn you've just reminded me of the first one I went on, first corporate job, would have been 2002. Partners had their own rooms, everyone else had to share. I can't remember what the activities were now but it was a very nice hotel.

It was basically a 48 hour bender. There were affairs going on all over the place, some (most) of the behaviour would be completely unacceptable now. I was sharing with a colleague, my boss (who had his own room) lost his key and the night porter had gone. He ended up sharing with me and my colleague, we were 22, he was a 50 odd year old married man. Absolutely nothing untoward happened, he was a really nice guy, but still. Probably get fired for that now.

I remember one I went to where we all had to watch a video of some blokes who worked on a market stall selling fish. The 'theme' was that, no matter how stereotypically boring/bad one's job was, you can have fun with it.

Then we had to all discuss it.

The problem was, the 'fun' these blokes had encompassed throwing the fish to each other, banging them about, juggling with them and things such as that.

Of the vegans/vegetarians on the team-one was crying and the other was livid and walked out.

I was a bit upset at seeing it myself if I am honest-found it disrespectful to the animal but also crass and pretty gross, and how it worked for a corporate team set up to provide bills to new customers I have no idea. I didn't need my job to be 'fun'! I was supervisor and as long as the job was done and the staff happy I didn't care!

Has anyone else watched it? It was literally called 'Fish' I believe?

Didn't see fish one but have seen videos like that - René actor from hello hello was in one - can't remember wtf it was about though.

I like them. Primarily because I like my team. My line of work benefits from high trust and a lot of collaboration across the team. Spending time together and getting to know each other personally helps with that. The work is also quite emotionally demanding, and it's nice to spend time with others who understand that and can support each other.

Absolutely loathe them.

Also find that people who organise them are either centralised marketing or business development type bods who haven't got a clue as to what is enjoyable or useful to the team in question and what an inconvenience it is to take days out and not be as responsive as we should be to our clients, or they are people are from the team itself but are the kind of people who do everything they can (like volunteering for organising team building events) so as to avoid real work.

I hate them with a passion. All this “bring your best self to work” bollocks drives me mad. I WFH in blissful silence. I don’t care about the SLT and their “vision” or their bloody charter - no one cares. I do not need to speak to anyone except to ensure I get my correct salary once a month and my annual leave requests agreed. Roll on retirement.

Hideous. If management want good culture, then they need to pay people fairly, put good process in place so everyday work isn't a clusterfuck and just be all-round decent people.

As for all that vision and values bollocks, well, maybe just focus on providing a good service/product. Do the above, and you're most of the way there!

Once worked for a company which insisted on holding a Christmas party 150 miles away, on a Friday night, with fancy dress (which you had to plan), sharing rooms AND no day off in lieu. Attendance strongly expected. No, ta.