Team Building

I’ve been working for my employer for far longer than I ever expected myself to be able to but I just realized the other day that I have not joined any company team building event, ever.  Isn’t it supposed to be a yearly thing? I may have done a small disservice to my teammates, even, when during a badminton game with an officemate, when asked about the impending TEAM BULDING for the year, I blurted out (partly out of annoyance and partly out of tiredness) that we don’t join such corporate events. Talk about being a bad representation, huh?! 

When I was younger (in the company, I mean), I guess I was a lot more snobby about such things, which is also partly caused by shyness and a general aversion to anything that will place me in the middle of a very large group of people. Now that I’ve developed a thicker skin and with less concern about reputation or  self-consciousness, I think I’m a bit more ready to join such events, not because I believe they help (sorry) but just to be cooperative. Well, this is a purely personal opinion and such events may actually mean something great for others and their team. 

Anyway, I was supposed to attend this Making Teamwork Work seminar about a year ago and I did everything I can think of to get away from it. Surely that’s one perfect example why teamwork sometimes doesn’t work, LOL. More than anything, I do believe that I am a team player. Again, purely a personal opinion, but I find the activities in most workshops tedious and mostly pointless. I’ve attended a few work-related trainings recently and I wonder if they didn’t want me banned yet from the other programs because I always write a few criticisms in the assessment forms. I mean, they’re supposed to be anonymous but I’m pretty sure they can clearly decipher who wrote those not-so-complimentary comments. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t diss the programs. I think I may have written more than a few times that they are not applicable to my needs, however.