What’s the craziest team building / off-site that you’ve ever had the misfortune to be part of?
I’ll go first. Back in the late 1990s I worked at a startup out of Seattle. The founders had a previous exit and had a winery in Sonoma. They flew us all down there and things started out fun. We had a scavenger hunt in San Francisco, we all picked grapes at their winery, and saw how the wine was made. The third day got weird. We were all supposed slaughter a goat and eat it. No one wanted to kill the poor thing, so a farm hand did it, and we all ate the terrible meat.
On the final evening we were all sat down in a barn with lots of candles. We did some semi-normal stuff like write down everything we have been avoiding in our lives, then we burned the lists.
Next, the person running the thing thought it would be a good idea to reenact the biblical thing where Jesus washes poor peoples’ feet. But she got it backwards, and some of the VPs were supposed to wash the CEO’s feet.
A couple of us vocally freaked out, then the whole thing fell apart and we all went home early.
I know my story may be extreme, but does anyone else have any misguided or just strange team building events like this in their work history?
About a decade ago the company I was working for did a one day "Amazing Race" (like the TV show) event. The staff were all divided into teams of about five people who normally did not work together and given staggered start times to begin the timed event. It started in the office (East San Francisco Bay) and ended in a bar near the office, with all other stops in San Francisco.
The race started with two teams getting stuck when an elevator failed in the office building. Ten people, one elevator, hours of waiting, while the rest of us were supposed to be competing on time. Any of us who worked for the company that day can still bond and speak ill of that event.
So it did work to bring you closer then? I did not consider that in my case, but our negative event surely brought many of us closer as well. :)
It did, but not in any way that anyone would want to repeat.
I don't really have a story to share, but I just wanted to comment on your story: what the hell??!! :P
What was the justification behind the slaughtering? Why the escalation - why did the organizers feel like they should put this in the programme? Was this related to the job at all? What was their reaction when you guys left early?
I am so confused as to why someone would make an event like that in a non-cult setting :P
This was a farm setting, so killing an animal did not seem absolutely bonkers, though in retrospect I wish we had all objected to that. It was a lesson in group think and avoiding biting the hand that feeds you for me. It was the second to last job I had where I was not the boss.
Lots of apologies.
After this experience, I honestly wondered if cult-like mechanisms were not purposely employed. The odd thing was that the organizer had a lot of experience with these events. I wonder if this type of program was normal.
Ah man, that definitely does sound absolutely bonkers... but hey, at least you're safe and now have a crazy story to tell at parties!
I’ve actually only told it to a couple people, and now Tildes, for some reason.