Company Socializing Has Become Work

That sounds awful. Can my employer please leave me alone when I'm not at work?

These comments are essentially all saying the same thing - let us work and then let us go home. And forced fun is never fun, no matter how hard the employer tries.

Every single one of these sounds horrible with the exception of assembling the product being sold, which could be a good thing for every one in the office to experience, but having to do that surrounded by a Burning man vibe would be a nighmare. And softball? So I have to be athletic to get promoted? Paint ball? I have to shoot things? "Teams connect when they are having fun" (what I find fun is not what my co-worker finds fun) "and genuinely challenged." Really? I don't connect when challenged, I retreat, like a lot of introverts. Let me do my job with an occasional enjoyable chance to chat at lunch or even a quick drink after work. Then I go home to my real friends and family.

Midweek overnight outings? Gee, any chance this company has a remarkable shortage of parents or others with caregiver responsibilities? That’s one way to weed out employees who won’t give you every moment of their lives. Everyone should protest these ridiculous requirements; even if it doesn’t cause you hardship now, it may well later. Some jobs require travel. But bonding ain’t one of them.

Yep. These work-place social events are horrible.

Mandatory after work socializing? No thanks. I am VERY careful with how I interact with my co-workers. Much safer that way. One company I worked for REQUIRED us to attend their annual holiday party. Thankfully, I was laid off before that happened!

I’m retired so I kind of skimmed this article, but the first thing I thought of was the mandatory after work socializing that has torn up Japanese home life. It’s my understanding that most days the “salary men” are required to socialize at clubs and functions, not getting home till nine or ten every night. As long as most people’s days are, this kind of “pretend it’s not mandatory” job related stuff shouldn’t be allowed.

When organizations say they're looking for a "culture fit" in employees, activities like the "forced fun" ones in this article are exactly the kind they want such workers to be amenable, even enthusiastic about. Happy hours, retreats, and other extracurricular activities may be fine with some folks, but not with me. I'm happy to have separate work lives and personal lives, and differing interaction circles in each. One thing I've never liked about work relationships is that there always exists the possibility that something shared in private outside work may still make its way back to the office or management, even in unwitting ways. Yes, I have had personal relationships that developed at work organically, but there was never any management coercion involved. I and others naturally found each other largely because of our shared circumstance - we were all relatively new to the company, recently out of college, and in our 20's. That was enough. I generally don't naturally gravitate toward some of the other archetypes found in an office, the way I didn't gravitate toward some of the archetypes I saw in high school (and there are similarities!). It should be enough for a workplace to be friendly, respectful, and congenial to its workers. It shouldn't take "social engineering" to accomplish that.

I take exception to Ms. Recio's comment that “Gen Z is so socially aware and so progressive, they’re asking for things that older generations have been scared to ask for...” Each generation is a product of their economy and technology. A lot of Gen X'rs wanted these types of benefits and social progression from their work life, but many started their work like in a recession where you have less options as employee and have to compromise to be employed. Those same Gen X'rs who fueled the dotcom boom and bust laid the foundation for many of these "progressive" benefits with the no dress code work environment, game rooms, bring your dog to work etc... sure small steps relative to set your own work week but culture is an evolution not a revolution. And let's not forget technology, pushed forward by those same Gen X'rs. Do you think WFH or answering emailsy next to your campfire would be possible using your 56k dial up modem and flip phone?

Work teams are built by working. In the office, during the contractual work day. That's it, and all that management should expect from employees. It's also all that employees should give to management. I get how hard it is to decline. But workers really really should. They should band together to say no, and wait, is that the Union talking? I wish.

Closely related to being Volun-told. Habitat for Humanity will never see one red cent from me after being forced year after year to participate in "building" a house with a bunch of dangerous and incompetent co-workers.

I am recently retired from public service, and thus no longer forced to participate in this sort of boundary blurring, time wasting nonsense. As I used to tell the people I supervised: there is a difference between having friends, and having friend-LY working relationships. Work is work, and your social life is none of your employer's business. It's an important distinction, especially for young eager new hires, to internalize. Call them what you will - retreats, workshops, team building exercises, leadership trainings - in my experience, these events invariably had little relevance to the actual work being left undone, and offered no practicable solutions to the real problems and concerns being expressed by front line staff to an oblivious HR department. At the end of these long days, participants left lugging the workplace equivalent of the heinous bridesmaid's dress ("You'll wear it again! Really!"): heavy three-ring binders, filled with enough Power Point slides to wallpaper the side of a barn.

We are now being subjected to mandatory monthly birthday parties in our department of 20-ish staffers, after a few invite-only birthday lunch outings left hurt feelings. The word "mandatory" undermines any enjoyment, even from cake.

Assembling vape pens until 3 a.m. "was like Burning Man." Just like it, I'm sure. All of these non-work work activities sound totally terrible.

Corporate retreats often miss the boat in a number of ways. How were the non-skiing employees included in the LinkedIn corporate retreat? Unfortunately, companies continue to hold corporate retreats or team-building events around activities that almost automatically exclude most minorities, women and non-athletes. Think golf outings. These activities do nothing to foster inclusion, let alone diversity.

So the Door's retreated are phone-free and screen-free....but they watch videos? My opinion on these are if it's during work hours, fine - that's my time you are paying me to use. But if it's after hours and mandatory, it's not cool unless you're paying me. Maybe a couple times a year is fine - holiday parties and the like. But semi-regular mandatory after hours get togethers are taking advantage.

We all need to re-unionize. Including all white collar workers. That would be the end of requirements outside normal work hours. Again, American workers have far fewer rights than any other workers in the developed world and it's because our will to organize has been beaten down by government, media and corporations.

Generally speaking office outings are tedious requirements and attempts to manufacture fun. I cannot think of many of situations in which I wanted to socialize with a large group of colleagues over the years. While it was a pleasure to meet outside of work with friends from the company, the all hands on deck outings meant I had to be around people who I couldn't stand or were obnoxious brown nosers or political climbers. Those events often reminded me of all the things I did not like about the company. The team building exercises were even worse and usually resulted in increasing tensions in the team. The people from outside the company generally did not understand the culture and were a forgettable bunch. There were too many situations where managers came to erroneous conclusions about employees based on flimsy evidence from the company's events. I much prefer my current firm where there is no attempt to do "outings" unless they are with clients.

Although I can admit to having had some fun at external team building events, it can be a form of organisational tyranny. Luckily I am outgoing and can mostly cope with the Corporate/HR nonsense that it is thrown at us though it is bemusing. There is a serious consequence to the this type of pseudoscience, a friend has recently been classified as a ‘Blue’ at work which should not be an issue apart from the fact that her line manager is an evangelical believer in this nonsense. It is bad enough having self-promoting gurus dealing out this snake oil as the latest fad in achieving greater organisational efficiency but in the hands of their disciples: potentially career threatening. Were workers to be identified on the basis of colour, religion, ethnicity or gender there would be questions asked but if those identities had been given predetermined traits, there would be an outcry.

Fun a with a profit motive. And on employees time that the company often does not pay for. I’m motivated to cancel my LinkedIn account after their ridiculous team building exercise described in the article. No one needs to be awakened and tortured at dawn as part of team building. Aren’t American labor laws torture enough? Cut it out, and leave the introverts alone.

Nothing builds comradery more than frequent Whirley Ball matches.

“How about mandatory time away from your family, to spend with the coworkers you already see 50 hours a week, spending your weekend to make up for the time you couldn’t work?” -Tech companies

FUNgineering is never fun!

There are many ways to challenge work groups besides “having fun.” In fact, accomplishments on the job are seldom triggered by extroverts, who may provide the noise but rarely the creativity. Is it not possible to have a workplace with a mix of introverts and extroverts, in which each type is given opportunities to excel with neither type being forced to become something they don’t want to be?

My employer provides "fun" after regular work hours. The company pays the bill for an activity they choose. Participation is mandatory and enthusiasm is expected. Food and alcohol are provided. Our office is congenial. Most of us would prefer to choose our own activities at the end of the workday.