RSS | Go mobile | Favorite Examiners | Meet the Examiners

Weather for Omaha | 12° Broken Clouds

Search articles from thousands of Examiners

Omaha

Select your city

Write for us

Omaha

Careers and Workplace

SF Workplace Examiner

Add to favorites Examiner Bio

Unsuccessful team building activities

May 19, 5:12 PM

SF Workplace Examiner

Joelle Ryssemus Sullivan

Previous Next

3 comments

RSS

Catherine in Montara writes, “My company encourages quarterly team building activities, but leaves the decision on what to do up to each group. My boss is a sports fanatic and always chooses competitive activities like flag football, obstacle course racing and dodge ball. A few of us are not athletic so these types of activities both make us uncomfortable and subject us to ridicule when we under perform. Help.”

Studies show that the practice of team building activities is a good one, helping to foster camaraderie and strengthen relationships between coworkers. However, any purported team building activity that makes some workers feel uncomfortable and ridiculed isn’t a successful team building effort. First, explain the situation to your boss. As someone who really enjoys sports she or he may just assume everyone else feels the same and may be genuinely surprised to hear differently. Second, encourage your boos to get feedback from the entire team. Chances are that any number of different coworkers will vote for a new activity for reasons of their own. Third, come up with alternative team building activities. Your boss may continually select sports activities in part because the alternatives are unclear. Forth, if you can’t get you boss off the “sports” theme, look for alternative activities besides game participation. Perhaps you can create a rally group, act as referee or help with coaching. Fifth, take the issue to your human resources department. It is likely that the HR department is a strong corporate supporter of team building and is invested in assuring that the activities are a success. HR will help in all aspects of improving the situation. And as always, when everyone at work is feeling respected, it’s all good!

email your workplace issues to joelle@hrchaeology.com

So you want to be a movie star? Beware of this job scam.

Résumé whoppers!

Four ways to create resume magic

New job resources website encourages readers to "look for the silver lining"

America misses Terry Tate during Super Bowl commercials

Comments

Vancouver 2010
Get exclusive coverage from Examiners on the Winter Games in Vancouver.

Recent Articles

Office Holiday Gift Dilemma

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Jenna in San Francisco writes, "I work in an office with 10 other employees. The last few days I've arrived at work to find a small gift on …

Divorce wrecks havoc on employee performance

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Vanessa in San Francisco writes, “I'm going through a very tough divorce and its impacting my job. I have a hard time feeling emotionally strong …

All Articles »

Things to see and do

Today

B.B. King

Feb 22 2010
7:30 pm
Music»

John Mayer

Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic

See all Events »

Examiner Articles
by Category

Arts & Entertainment
Bars & Clubs
Business & Finance
Careers & Workplace
Education & Schools
Family & Parenting
Fitness & Weight Loss
Food & Drink
Gadgets & Tech
Games & Hobbies
Health
Home & Living
Neighborhoods

News
Pets
Politics
Recreation
Relationships
Religion & Spirituality
Restaurants
Society & Culture
Sports
Style & Fashion
Transportation
Travel
View the latest »

Unsuccessful team building activities

Subscribe

Related Articles:

Comments

Popular Articles

Recent Articles

Things to see and do

Name: Comments:
characters left NOTE: Do Not Alter These Fields: Contact Email: Contact Email: Contact Url: Subscribe to Blog: Remember my Info: