Corporate "AWAY DAYS" aaaggghhhh

They never resulted in any bonding or team building for us. They were just another annoying, weird, not-so-bright idea from management.

The lunches were always very good, though, so we suffered and joked our way through them. It seemed just idiotic to pay a fortune for them - when everything else was on such a tight budget. (Example, somebody 'borrowed' my stapler and it was such a complete nuisance to get another that I just bought one and tethered it to my desk.)

Hate them and avoid like plague.

No no no. If someone has to be controlled and guided to be in a team then it’s a square peg in a round hole. There’s always someone in the team building day, ready to be the keep fit, fastest, must win idiot. They just don’t recognise themselves. They think it’s cool.

Hated, hated, hated those types of things. Same with annual evaluations when you've been with the company for a long time. Once, when asked what my goals were at an Interview, (I had a husband and five children and a home and some kind of dog, and I was about 45), I said something like I'm 45, I have no goals left, but would there be a wheelchair ramp at the company picnic and how many sick days would I be getting? I was being given a typing test by a woman who couldn't have been over 21 and who was wearing a retainer. I had already decided this company had nothing to offer me or I it.

When I was teaching our team bonding consisted of our year group staff going out for a curry and wine......

Oh, don't remind me!

I have actually been quite successful at finding acceptable excuses for not attending these events, after the first one (in the mid 1970s, when aged 23, I was expected to stand in a circle with half the remainder of the group, all of us with our eyes closed, while the rest of the group circled round us and touched us!

Yes, I said touch and I do not mean only a friendly pat on the shoulder or upper arm.

A vast quantity of those going round the circle with THEIR EYES OPEN were (apparently) unable to distinguish between our upper arms and our breasts.

When they then started edging towards even more private areas, three of us walked out, and did not return.

All my memories of corporate away days are good. Even corporate away two or three days. Once they were restricted due to costs I made the decision to vet them and not go to the ones that were outside.

Picked up the fallout from a local company’s team bonding fire walking event - multiple employees ended up in our A&E department with burnt feet - the company got a ‘strongly worded’ letter from the hospital!

We had a team building day where we had the choice of abseiling or doing a walk in the Peak District (I opted for the walk) it ended with us all meeting up for a picnic, it was actually a good day, the weather was beautiful and we all enjoyed it.
In contrast, at another TB day at a local hotel, the facilitator went around the group & asked us all to tell everyone something about ourselves that they didn’t already know, the usual cringe inducing stuff that many people dread. One colleague totally overshared a load of embarrassing personal stuff that none of us really wanted to hear. The problem is there is always someone who actually loves all that and doesn't know when to shut up, they’re usually the one who after a long boring day when you are all about to go home starts asking dumb questions to try & make themselves look good which means you’re sat there for another hour. I don’t miss any of it now I’m retired.

MissAdventure

Yep, you're right, Trisher.

????

Oops, we were all ONLY there for the day! ??

In a previous employment in the public sector the 'workers' had an Away Day at a local hotel. We were all not there for the day and were treated to a reasonable buffet lunch butthe day was centred around team building exercises and customer care improvement. On the other hand, our senior management went to a conference centre some distance away, three course dinner, copious amounts of alcohol, an overnight stay with very little else achieved apparently. They all arrived at the office the following morning extremely hungover and received very little sympathy from those of us who did all the work anyway. The managers were so bad that junior staff had to make decision way above their pay grade. There was so many complaints from my ur team that a stop was put on Away Days completely.

Well I'm disappointed. All those hours spent organising away days, team building exercises etc

Reading all these stories I'm so glad Iv never had to attend any corporate team building events....I hate any kind of forced interaction...

DH on a team building weekend. Group given materials to build a raft to enable transportation of X number of team mates to further up river. DH worked out materials not enough to support weight of all involved. Organiser disputed this basically stating DHs calculations were rubbish and to get on with it. Dh refused saying waste of time. He did assist team members who wanted to try by giving directions on the build. Organiser when checking progress told DH report would be forwarded to management on his "stubborn refusal". Raft built, team members climbed on, sank almost immediately. DH told organiser he would report the team building company as disastrous and useless! No further outings ever held.

When I was teaching, our directed time was sometimes a silly team bonding affair. I hated being in groups where someone thought they would be the most appropriate leader (they rarely were). Some of these silly bonding sessions involved pretending to be children, giving head massages to other members of staff and sniffing various scented oils. The only vaguely interesting one was building a house using rolled up newspapers! What fun that was.

biglouis

Anyone got memories of horrendous away days or "team bonding" sessions?

The last one I went to was towards the end of my time working in a university. It was 2 days residential and the uni supplied us with a form where we could state any "special needs". I made it clear on this that I had mobility issues caused by arthritis. Whether the facilitator did not bother to read it or did so and felt able to ignore the information I dont know.

On the first day we were asked to sit on the floor in a circle. I at once announced that I would not be doing this due to disability and fetched a chair. Another woman said "Well Im not disabled but I gave up sitting on the floor in infants school." She also fetched a chair. This put me in the facilitator's bad books because it meant we all had to sit on chairs. I should ad that it was not essential to the exercise to sit on the floor.

Later that evening she organised an exercise which involved a lot of running around between several rooms. I announced that I would sit this one out as I had pain in my back.

Facilitator says.

"Im not comfortable with you just sitting this out Biglouis".

"Ok, I appreciate that your not comfortable but you will have to get over your discomfort. Im still not running around. Did you not read the information you were sent where participants outlined their special needs?"

I then quoted the Equality Act (then still the Disability Discrimination Act) part about reasonable adjustment and made it clear that I would be making a complaint to the unversity. Of course she backed down.

I did in fact complain to the University and had to fill out a form. Whether there was any comeback or adjustment made for future participants I do not know. I left the employment soon afterwards.

I was thinking as I was reading this that it didn’t sound very inclusive. Only been to one team building away day which was focused on baking (in teams), other away days have always been about us spending time time together to wok on specific areas needing a team focus, so quite work based.

One of the many great things about being self-employed is never having to do this sort of thing.

Had some dreadful away days/bonding days. Once they let a consultant join us , he was charging the company £400 a day. We played rounders in the afternoon, the consultant fell and badly broke leg was in hospital for a week and rehabilitation for weeks, He sued the company for £000s for loss of earnings. What a fiasco. The company didn’t learn at Christmas another consultant came to a works party, got drunk and decided to demonstrate cossack dancing fell backwards and injured his back. He sued aswell and was awarded some damages due to company supplying a free bar so contributed to him being drunk.

Oh God, my old employer was hot on these- it was not an American firm but had a few ‘Shermans’ in unfortunately influential positions. So it was ghastly team bonding weekends (weekends!) or ‘softball Sundays ‘ in the park.
I generally got the stink-eye from them when I asked if I was going to be recompensed for giving up my precious free time wilt my family after working like a dog all week.
We weren’t even offered tine off in lieu. So I never went to anything and couldn’t give a monkeys it they thought I wasn’t a team player .
I certainly was when it mattered. I.E. when I was actually working.

He died after going for a run.
I expect he had a pencil with him.
"Never run with a pencil"

Yep, you're right, Trisher.

I thought the accident left him with epilepsy and he died from a fit, , Trisher.
I'm off to Google it now.

ps My Mum used to say "Don't meet trouble halfway".

I'm that kind of Mum. I have to try not to be that kind of Gran.