‘I nearly drowned’: The unique hell of work team-building

The origins of team-building can be traced back to the Hawthorne studies, a series of behavioural tests done on factory workers in the 1920s and 1930s at the Western Electric Company. Researchers discovered that when workers felt like they were a part of a social, tight-knit team, their cooperation and productivity increased significantly – seemingly a win-win for all involved. And so, the concept of team-building in the workplace was born. Fast forward to modern day, and staff away days, mandated social outings and colleague bonding activities are common occurrences in most workplaces, with a YouGov poll showing that nearly half of all British workers (42 per cent) have done some form of team-building exercise. At best, the exercises might provoke an eye-roll or a feeling of dread, but at worst can leave you traumatised or unable to meet colleagues’ eyes the next day. Here, The i Paper speaks to three anonymous workers about their team-building exercises from hell. I had a panic attack while white water rafting Sarah*, 40, London I’d been at the company for six months at the time the incident happened. I’d never previously worked at a company that did team-building activities or anything like that. Bear in mind, we weren’t told what we were doing beforehand. All we were told was that it was going to take place at a water centre outside of London and to bring some swimming gear or a wetsuit. When we arrived, we were told we would be going white water rafting. I started panicking because I wasn’t a very good swimmer, so if something happened and I fell in the rapids, I’d be pretty screwed. But the guy who worked there told us it didn’t matter if we weren’t great swimmers, as we would be wearing a life vest, so it would be fine. Shorts Before we started, we were put into groups, and I was put into a group with some employees I rarely worked with, so I already felt nervous. I wasn’t in my comfort zone or with people that I knew very well. Before we did the rafting, we were told there would be a test swim where we would need to jump into the rapids and swim back to the ladder against the current. But when I jumped in, I couldn’t do it. I started having a bit of a panic attack. Someone had to jump in and save me. I actually don’t think it was someone who worked at the water centre, but a colleague who I was close with who is an amazing swimmer. She jumped in and grabbed me and pulled me to the side. I was just in shock for the rest of the day, trying to calm myself down. Obviously I didn’t take part in the white water rafting like the rest of the team, so I just got dried up and had to wait for them to be done. Afterwards, we had a team barbecue and I just felt embarrassed. As we worked for a travel company, everyone at the company were pretty active people who were super fit, ran marathons, or were strong swimmers or divers. I thought we’d be going home after, but we ended up on a double-decker party bus back to London, with blaring music, doing loads of shots. The bus dropped us off outside Mahiki, this nightclub, so the party just carried on there. By that point, I had drowned away my embarrassment and was just drunk. It was mortifying. *** The head of finance tackled our CEO to the floor Annie*, 34, London Years ago, I worked for a well-known fashion brand. It was voted one of the top companies to work for as a young person in London. Every year, for the Christmas party, each department was tasked with working together – as a team-building exercise – to set challenges for the senior team. We would have to think of a theme and create games and mini assault courses on our respective floors of the office. Senior directors and our CEO would then have to compete in the games. Looking back, it’s honestly crazy that our team-building exercise was creating fun team-building exercises for our bosses. It really was just a way for the senior members of staff to have fun, play drinking games and show off. One year, our floor created a Pokémon-themed assault course complete with an indoor slip-and-slide where the directors and CEO would have to race to the finish line via sliding on pool inflatables. Whoever lost had to down bowls of blue cocktails. I am not making this up. I saw the finance director tackled at the waist by our CEO because he was so desperate to win – all of them red in the face, while we cheered. Obviously, there was no team-building and none of us really bonded as a result. It was a guise for management to collect “lad” points and seem relatable or like good sports to their wildly underpaid staff. I saw one of the directors vomiting. It was the closest thing to a cult I’ve ever seen. Sometimes I feel shocked that none of us were forced to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. I still have a video of it. *** I had to share a hotel room with three colleagues in Magaluf Kate*, 31, ChesterThis was my first job out of university for a construction company. It was a relatively new business, and there were no more than ten people who worked there, and all of the directors were men aged 35 to 55. I’d say the majority of the junior people were young women. One day, we were told there would be an annual general meeting (AGM) in Spain. We all knew that the founder of the company went to Palma in Mallorca quite a bit on holiday on his own, without his wife and kids – which we thought was weird. He talked about it a lot. Then this AGM was announced in Palma. I’d actually been to Magaluf before on a girls’ holiday in school, and was very aware of the differences between Magaluf and Palma. When we got to the hotel, it was apparent we were definitely in Magaluf. Checking in, I remember feeling very confused about the bedroom set up. All of the directors – the men – got their own separate rooms. All of the women had to share a room. There ended up being four of us in one room. It was very clear from the beginning that the trip was definitely not a company AGM. We didn’t do any work. We did a lot of lying by the pool. We went for nice meals. We went on a night out in Magaluf on the strip. One night I found one of the directors doing cocaine in the bathroom and ended up staying up until 8am with him and one of the apprentices. We never spoke about it again. Strangely, it didn’t match the company culture at all. Our Christmas night out was relatively tame and normal. This was just one seedy adventure we all went on. At the time, I was young and thought: “This is fun – my company has taken me to Magaluf.” But in retrospect, what the hell?