Team building: survival courses etc

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Cyril Haearn
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Team building: survival courses etc

Post by Cyril Haearn »

Some firms organise adventure courses to encourage team spirit, maybe climbing rocks or trees and abseiling down, whitewater rafting in the wilderness and the like

I can hardly imagine anything worse. 40 hours a week with the coworkers is already too much

Anyone been on such a course, is there a good side to it?

Seems to me, it borders on recklessness, what if the raft capsises and all the web administrators are drowned?
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meic
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by meic »

what if the raft capsises and all the web administrators are drowned?

That is nature's way of saying that they have failed the survival course. :wink:
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NUKe
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by NUKe »

soory your concerns about the web designer reminded me of the Golgafrinchan Ark from Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
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reohn2
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by reohn2 »

When I worked for British Coal in middle management(working underground),some bright spark at the top of the management tree somewhere decided on such a lunatic idea.
I was called in to be 'invited' to take part,a week in Northumberland some where.I flatly refused and was told that it may impede my promotion prospects,his face was a picture when I told the interviewer that I couldn't give a monkey's for promotion.
It was just after the 84 strike and the whole workforce was completely demoralised.
I was made redundant 18months later :D
Last edited by reohn2 on 7 Nov 2017, 5:37pm, edited 2 times in total.
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
I don't get it, trying to build a team with people who already hate each others guts, yes disaster if its a situation where someone sees revenge will be easy to implement.
There are many whom I have worked with I would distance myself from in a disaster.

The old team leader is now called team lead.
Normally an unsocial bully who is favoured by management but despised by fellow workers.

Its just a game they play when the firm is close to the rocks and or there's uncontrollable fighting in the ranks.
Management are weak.

Spent most of my life working on my own, but was constantly called upon to fix / do / make / design what management could not achieve, then when the ball was rolling again I would return to sweeping the floor cleaning and fixing leaks :)

Team players don't pass the job to others or ignore what needs to be done by end of shift by hiding substandard work under the table.
Team players do the job and move onto the next.

Modern team leaders............supervisors / team lead, spend more time watching footy on their phone than working................

Then there's "State Of The Nation" managers speeches to get the staff motivated :roll:
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Cyril Haearn
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by Cyril Haearn »

+1+1 for r2 + NA

The courses are good earners for the con-sultancy firms, one near me has taken over an old scouts building

Maybe team building could be done through cycling, copying the TTT in the TdF or team pursuit on the track, or mixed tandems, then I would join in. But not at the weekend, and I would expect to be paid for my time
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Graham
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by Graham »

Many years ago now . . . . the company weekend was to be on Guernsey.

The coach left London midday friday.
Despite being high summer the clouds grew darker and the wind whipped up to gale-force as we approached Weymouth.

As we left the coach I felt grave misgivings about the imminent catamaran crossing.

I made my excuses and walked back to Weymouth Station.

They did make it to Guernsey, but were all as sick as dogs during the crossing.
It sounded pretty awful. A true vomit comet.
The rest of the weekend was reported to have been "OK" **.

Neutral outcome :
I don't know whether their contempt for me having bailed was balanced by my perceived excellent judgement.

** Damned by faint praise.
pwa
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by pwa »

One of my former employers took the team of about 25 on a two night stay at Center Parks (their spelling mistake, not mine) near Longleat. The break consisted of loads of boring flip chart stuff that could have been done at no cost back at base, interspersed with water slides. Total waste of money. They went to the wall about a year later.
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by old_windbag »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Spent most of my life working on my own, but was constantly called upon to fix / do / make / design what management could not achieve, then when the ball was rolling again I would return to sweeping the floor cleaning and fixing leaks :)

Team players don't pass the job to others or ignore what needs to be done by end of shift by hiding substandard work under the table.
Team players do the job and move onto the next.

Modern team leaders............supervisors / team lead, spend more time watching footy on their phone than working................

Then there's "State Of The Nation" managers speeches to get the staff motivated :roll:


Crikey thats like where I worked :shock: . I think it's just a sickness that has pervaded our working environment. The expression used to be "those who can do, those who can't teach" but I knew it as "those who can do, those who can't manage". I saw apalling decisions and judgement by managers but they somehow were able to duck and dive when needbe to keep their jobs. Sadly our salary structure forced people into management to gain salary increases which isn't how it should be.

Had any a state of the nation speech announcing bad times and redundancies...... yet accounts showed all directors getting a 40k bonus in that year :roll: .
softlips
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by softlips »

I've been on loads of team building days / weekends etc. They cost the company a hell of a lot of money. It would be fair better to stick the money behind the bar and shout "Have a great night, tomorrow is free time".

Last event was in Brussels, I refused to go the evening team building event (laserquest). Also managed to get out of one a few weeks ago by making sure I was operating. It was one of those 'escape from the room using the clues'.

No thanks!
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Cunobelin
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by Cunobelin »

Take a day off, all of you go down to the pub, have a few pints and sort out your differences in an "Honest and Open" manner


Sorted !!!!


And a lot cheaper
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
reohn2 wrote:When I worked for British Coal in middle management(working underground),some bright spark at the top of the management tree somewhere decided on such a lunatic idea.
I was called in to be 'invited' to take part,a week in Northumberland some where.I flatly refused and was told that it may impede my promotion prospects,his face was a picture when I told the interviewer that I couldn't give a monkey's for promotion.
It was just after the 84 strike and the whole workforce was completely demoralised.
I was made redundant 18months later :D

Mine was a bit different.

I was targeted for a job away from home, I did not want it at all.
Every tom dick and harry had been away working on this job but me.
After turning it down several times to my boss, I was hit by the chief manager and when I tried to avoid him by walking on the other side of the corridor he put out his arms :lol:
I went reluctantly and some of my best work! Despite the stories that all the other staff went out every night on the booze.
I went for the job and took my bike for evening rides.
When I came home I had a different boss and a 50% pay rise...............some of you will recognise the method here.
Any way it was a plum job ruined by poor management and much corruption.
I asked for a demotion with less pay but they would not have it, I spent a year doing little more than turning up for work and asked them to sack me but no joy :(
Went home early every day and took many days off, still they would not sack me so I gave them a reason to sack me.
A good project and a plum job ruined by politics in big business.
The firm is long gone and all production moved overseas.

Today 60 years after the factory was built the site is demolished, that was over ten years ago, but the council are still trying to build expensive homes and nothing is happening with what resembles a bomb site, no business at all just encroaching houses all around the site, gone are the days there is no industry local anymore.
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Spinners
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by Spinners »

Cunobelin wrote:Take a day off, all of you go down to the pub, have a few pints and sort out your differences in an "Honest and Open" manner


Sorted !!!!


And a lot cheaper


Agree. I went on a one-week residential course with a previous employer and the cost was an eye-watering £3,500 (per person) :shock: and that was 18 years ago.
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Cyril Haearn
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by Cyril Haearn »

The cops do this too, they tried to build a relationship with problem teenagers by playing paintball together

That is, they pretended to shoot and kill each other :x
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Re: Team building: survival courses etc

Post by pwa »

Cyril Haearn wrote:The cops do this too, they tried to build a relationship with problem teenagers by playing paintball together

That is, they pretended to shoot and kill each other :x


A bit different. Playing games with young people to build up good relations with the community is surely part of what we expect the police to do.
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