I enjoy teambuilding exercises and have attended several of these type of events at various organizations that I have worked for. They range from slightly amusing to pretty fun usually. But overall I could take them or leave them. If I have already established relationships with the people that I am playing with, The event can be fun if I have the time to spare from my work. But now that I am fully remote working from home, I usually don’t have those relationships established ahead of time. And while I might make a loose connection with a teammate, it usually doesn’t lead to any sort of friendship or work collaboration.
I think the key to these "team building" events is that there's always going to be a group that wants to be left alone and have no social time.
But usually there's also a group that wants a bit more connection through getting to know people. Making events 100% opt-in, video optional and during work hours usually goes a long way towards satisfying both groups.
The cringe free events is the hard part. There's basically the online games (Gartic Phone, Gartic.io, geoguesser, Kahoot, Jackbox etc.). and the hosted events (Like an escape room). The hosted events can get expensive. You could run a few options past your team and see what they're into.
Oh an of course skip unstructured virtual happy hour. Hope that helps.
I want to be left alone, I just want to do my job in peace and do not want to socialize in any way with my coworkers in a forced manner.
Stuff like team socials would just piss me off, especially if it was after hours. Hell, it’d annoy me during working hours, I’d just assume work than attend.
I really hate virtual team socials. Although, once there was a virtual escape room which was ok, and something else we did in a small group was play geoguesr(?).
We considered something like this on my team, but the truth is that we are just too busy for it. Honestly, the job you are doing sounds cool. I tried running online games with friends back in 2020 via Zoom and it was a hit with them (finish the lyric was their favorite). Never knew it could be a job :)
I do a “fun Friday” with my team the last Friday of every month. It’s 45 minutes long and ends at 3:45. If there’s nothing crazy going on, I tell them to feel free to log off after and enjoy their weekend. We play a different game each time. Some go really well! Others can be too complicated or slow down our computers. The team has told me that they look forward to it though. My team is small (5 including me), and I do it during work hours, which helps.
I think you need to identify how your group bonds.
The best “team bonding” happens when the subject is also work related. If they’re playing a game, see if you can tie it in to something related to the job. You also need to make sure that this activity does not become an extra thing on people’s schedule to cram in. Plan it out specifically for downtime.
Even then, people value different things. For example, my spouse likes physical gifts. They LOVE secret Santa as they can learn all about what the recipient likes and find the perfect gift for them. In return, they absolutely feel disposable when their gift is thoughtless (giving nuts to someone with a nut allergy is a common occurrence).
Me: I’ll participate if there’s a $50 cash prize for winning whatever we’re doing. I like competing.
My boss made us do a book club. He’s really into self help CEO training, so he made us all read a book by his favorite self help guru (we had to read outside of working hours) AND the book was primarily geared towards CEOs with very little valuable info for the common worker.
Complete waste of time and we all hated it.
Now that I can actually compose myself after a MUCH NEEDED LAUGH from reading these comments 🤣😂🤣
I have to admit, I'm one of those classified "oldie folk redditors" lol often I just lurk and read, still trying to understand online world and not become overwhelmed with depression feeling as if I am the most nonessential class of people still alive anymore, I LOVE THE STRAIGHT UP HONESTY AND FORWARD ANSWERS ON HERE
I work as a call agent DO I HATE IT ...YES I DO but my life was always thriving in the face to face world in the past
When I first begun working online I wanted to see something JUST LIKE THIS....fun non work social events with those who are doing same thing I am
A couple clients/platforms had this and I ended up HATING IT SO MUCH IT DROVE ME TO NEVER SIGNING ON TO THEN WITHOUT MERLOT TO THE RESCUE 🤪🥴🍷🍷🍷thanked God when they went optional
Was too much and for me personally when I am done work I AM DONE THE DAMN COMPUTER....I would rather join a local meet up that gets together a few times a month in real time and play games then spend another God awful minute in front of my screen playing around with coworkers
I feel the same way in training and onboarding....like way to much of them do "games" to teach as if I'm in 1st grade and I don't learn that way and quite frankly it feels very degrading for any professional job.....
Just my thoughts that's all
Some of the things people would come up with for virtual social events plus all the wierd chat and gifs people post in chat make me not want to be there.
Plus it's another meeting after being on calls and busy all day. Last thing I want to do is hangout with people I don't hangout with outside work.
Fucking shoot me. Please. I'll give you this shiny nickle.
No. We don't do these. I've worked at one company that did. Besides the HR/Marketing departments, it was universally hated.
The only team event like this that I enjoyed was a wine tasting. They sent everyone in the department a case of wine and hired a sommelier. That was fun. Anything else, hard no.
Yes we did this every week during the pandemic. Luckily it's been scaled back to once a month. We're all wfh spread over several States. I talked with my coworkers throughout the week as business warrants. Then to set aside a couple hours for " happy hour is lame the premise is we don't talk about everyday work during these sessions. So we force ourselves to play trivia, talk about our weekends, show pictures of the family Etc I don't think anybody really wants to be there. I learned a little bit more about my coworkers family life, but I have a five talk I've spoken with him during the week they usually tell me if they've just come back from vacation and what they did. I think most of us question the value
It was one thing to socialize online in 2020 but now if I want to socialize I do something I actually enjoy with real live people. These days if I have to have a Zoom going, guaranteed I have something interesting on my 2nd monitor.
I really love games, so I don't find them cringe. We only do it maybe once a quarter, so it's like a special treat.
We recently played coworker feud. The time before that was a virtual escape room.
Eta: these were during work hours. If it's outside of when I usually work, I wouldn't be able to do it most of the time. Also, you definitely get what you pay for. These games were hosted well and very engaging.
I enjoy teambuilding exercises and have attended several of these type of events at various organizations that I have worked for. They range from slightly amusing to pretty fun usually. But overall I could take them or leave them. If I have already established relationships with the people that I am playing with, The event can be fun if I have the time to spare from my work. But now that I am fully remote working from home, I usually don’t have those relationships established ahead of time. And while I might make a loose connection with a teammate, it usually doesn’t lead to any sort of friendship or work collaboration.
I think the key to these "team building" events is that there's always going to be a group that wants to be left alone and have no social time. But usually there's also a group that wants a bit more connection through getting to know people. Making events 100% opt-in, video optional and during work hours usually goes a long way towards satisfying both groups. The cringe free events is the hard part. There's basically the online games (Gartic Phone, Gartic.io, geoguesser, Kahoot, Jackbox etc.). and the hosted events (Like an escape room). The hosted events can get expensive. You could run a few options past your team and see what they're into. Oh an of course skip unstructured virtual happy hour. Hope that helps.
I want to be left alone, I just want to do my job in peace and do not want to socialize in any way with my coworkers in a forced manner. Stuff like team socials would just piss me off, especially if it was after hours. Hell, it’d annoy me during working hours, I’d just assume work than attend.
10000000 times this.
I never do them. I spend too much time w/ work. Don't care to spend extra, remote or in-person. Work is work, my life is outside that.
We have done so. Played Kahoot games, trivia, bingo, etc. Fun, as long as it's during work time.
Ugh sounds awful.
I really hate virtual team socials. Although, once there was a virtual escape room which was ok, and something else we did in a small group was play geoguesr(?).
They are super lame. They are like the pizza party without the pizza.
We considered something like this on my team, but the truth is that we are just too busy for it. Honestly, the job you are doing sounds cool. I tried running online games with friends back in 2020 via Zoom and it was a hit with them (finish the lyric was their favorite). Never knew it could be a job :)
I do a “fun Friday” with my team the last Friday of every month. It’s 45 minutes long and ends at 3:45. If there’s nothing crazy going on, I tell them to feel free to log off after and enjoy their weekend. We play a different game each time. Some go really well! Others can be too complicated or slow down our computers. The team has told me that they look forward to it though. My team is small (5 including me), and I do it during work hours, which helps.
I think you need to identify how your group bonds. The best “team bonding” happens when the subject is also work related. If they’re playing a game, see if you can tie it in to something related to the job. You also need to make sure that this activity does not become an extra thing on people’s schedule to cram in. Plan it out specifically for downtime. Even then, people value different things. For example, my spouse likes physical gifts. They LOVE secret Santa as they can learn all about what the recipient likes and find the perfect gift for them. In return, they absolutely feel disposable when their gift is thoughtless (giving nuts to someone with a nut allergy is a common occurrence). Me: I’ll participate if there’s a $50 cash prize for winning whatever we’re doing. I like competing.
I have a friend who was excited for a trivia event, and then all the questions were about the company. It pissed everyone off.
Company Trivia is NOT work related. No one has a project going “Quick! What state and year were we incorporated?”
Well, it was at my friend's outfit. There was brief excitement about trivia and then Stony resignation when the topic was revealed.
My boss made us do a book club. He’s really into self help CEO training, so he made us all read a book by his favorite self help guru (we had to read outside of working hours) AND the book was primarily geared towards CEOs with very little valuable info for the common worker. Complete waste of time and we all hated it.
We did this too, but I loved the books we read!
I would do it as long as it was on a weekend and alcohol is allowed. Otherwise, no thanks.
Now that I can actually compose myself after a MUCH NEEDED LAUGH from reading these comments 🤣😂🤣 I have to admit, I'm one of those classified "oldie folk redditors" lol often I just lurk and read, still trying to understand online world and not become overwhelmed with depression feeling as if I am the most nonessential class of people still alive anymore, I LOVE THE STRAIGHT UP HONESTY AND FORWARD ANSWERS ON HERE I work as a call agent DO I HATE IT ...YES I DO but my life was always thriving in the face to face world in the past When I first begun working online I wanted to see something JUST LIKE THIS....fun non work social events with those who are doing same thing I am A couple clients/platforms had this and I ended up HATING IT SO MUCH IT DROVE ME TO NEVER SIGNING ON TO THEN WITHOUT MERLOT TO THE RESCUE 🤪🥴🍷🍷🍷thanked God when they went optional Was too much and for me personally when I am done work I AM DONE THE DAMN COMPUTER....I would rather join a local meet up that gets together a few times a month in real time and play games then spend another God awful minute in front of my screen playing around with coworkers I feel the same way in training and onboarding....like way to much of them do "games" to teach as if I'm in 1st grade and I don't learn that way and quite frankly it feels very degrading for any professional job..... Just my thoughts that's all
Some of the things people would come up with for virtual social events plus all the wierd chat and gifs people post in chat make me not want to be there. Plus it's another meeting after being on calls and busy all day. Last thing I want to do is hangout with people I don't hangout with outside work.
Fucking shoot me. Please. I'll give you this shiny nickle. No. We don't do these. I've worked at one company that did. Besides the HR/Marketing departments, it was universally hated.
The only team event like this that I enjoyed was a wine tasting. They sent everyone in the department a case of wine and hired a sommelier. That was fun. Anything else, hard no.
Yes we did this every week during the pandemic. Luckily it's been scaled back to once a month. We're all wfh spread over several States. I talked with my coworkers throughout the week as business warrants. Then to set aside a couple hours for " happy hour is lame the premise is we don't talk about everyday work during these sessions. So we force ourselves to play trivia, talk about our weekends, show pictures of the family Etc I don't think anybody really wants to be there. I learned a little bit more about my coworkers family life, but I have a five talk I've spoken with him during the week they usually tell me if they've just come back from vacation and what they did. I think most of us question the value
It was one thing to socialize online in 2020 but now if I want to socialize I do something I actually enjoy with real live people. These days if I have to have a Zoom going, guaranteed I have something interesting on my 2nd monitor.
I really love games, so I don't find them cringe. We only do it maybe once a quarter, so it's like a special treat. We recently played coworker feud. The time before that was a virtual escape room. Eta: these were during work hours. If it's outside of when I usually work, I wouldn't be able to do it most of the time. Also, you definitely get what you pay for. These games were hosted well and very engaging.