Getting To Know You

Recently in work I had the ordeal of a 6 hour Team Building Meeting. The objective of this meeting was to get to know our colleagues better. *Shudder*

It seems that as an office worker I have no choice but to endure these gargantuan wastes of time periodically, so I resigned myself to a few boring hours of team huddles. Then I looked at the agenda:

Agenda Point 1: Icebreaker games 

Two words have surely never roused my heckles more than ‘Icebreaker Games’. For those of you that don’t work in an office & have never had to endure such a thing, ‘Icebreaker Games’ normally consist of some sort of group humiliation under the guise of getting to know each other better. 

Why why why does the corporate world feel the need for such bullshit? Believe it or not I’m a grownup. I am able to introduce myself to my colleagues and I somehow even manage to function in society without the need for group activities that serve only to humiliate us all.

The business world’s obsession with ‘organised fun’ is one that has haunted me ever since moving to Cardiff. From trust tests to beach days I’ve had just about enough of this trend. 

 

Why can’t I just come to work and, well, you know, WORK?! I’m all for interacting with my colleagues and even occasionally going out for lunch together but do we honestly all need to be strong-armed into becoming bosom buddies for the sake of the team?

At this point I would like to say I do have many wonderful colleagues/ex-colleagues that are friends of mine. However please believe me when I say that it wasn’t team building that made that happen. 
 

I feel I spend enough of my short life in work without it muscling in on my downtime as well and pray tell me why I much socialise with those colleagues that I haven’t chosen to befriend or know I’m not going to form a relationship with?

Surely I am not alone in this?  It's not a case of not wanting to know my colleagues it's more the fact that I don't want to be forced to be friends with people just because we work in the same office.    

As Im mentioned, I count some of my previous work colleagues amongst my greatest friends and I believe some of my current colleagues will be the same but I know there are also some that I have no interest in getting to know in any capacity other than work.  Is that really such a problem?