Team Building
In Chinese companies, or foreign companies established in China, it is very common to organize an annual day out to do outdoor team building activities. If you work in a Chinese company, you will most probably have to sacrifice a day of your weekend to participate in the team building (Chinese companies don’t really understand the concept of “private life”); if your company is foreign, or a nice Chinese company, they will organize it on a working day. Because it is work, right?
In my first year in my previous company in Suzhou, the team building was to be done during the weekend. Two whole days. They were going to a village with an activity camp and sleeping there. I said I was not going to waste my weekend to do that and I didn’t go. Sorry! The second year they also organized it on a Saturday, but as it was only going to be in the morning I went (and C. also joined!). We played laser tag and I am not sure how that can help you to cooperate better with your colleagues during your daily work, but whatever. That day was very hot and humid. We sweated like pigs. Laser tag sucks. I would have preferred paintball.
This year, my first year in my current job in Shanghai, the team building activity was organized on a Monday a few weeks ago. We went to Century Park, a huge park in Pudong district, had a picnic lunch and then did the tasks, which basically consisted in finding several items that the organizer had hidden in the park.
Well, the first game was a relay race pushing a lemon with a stick…
The activity was basically a failure. We had like 10 teams and the organizer needed to send through WeChat to each team a picture of the location and the coordinates of the item they needed to find. The coordinates were not accurate, the apps that track your location didn’t refresh in real time while you moved around, some of the items were taken away… It was a mess, but at least it was fun.
My team found the first item very fast because in the hint picture there was a building in the background and that allowed us to locate the correct place. After finding the item (a plastic spider) we had to go back to the base camp, do a miniquest and receive the instructions for the next task. Our first miniquest was answering some weird questions like: “How many chairs are there in the big meeting room?” and “What is the sum of the birth years of everybody in the office?”.
We carried 3 balloons each. If another team bursted your balloon you lost points. It was a war!
The second task took us more than one hour; in the picture there were only trees (not a very good hint when you are in a park!) and it was basically impossible to find the correct place based on latitude and longitude. When we finally found the place, the item (a newspaper) was not there anymore!
Each team was supposed to finish 15 tasks. When half of the time had passed and most teams had only completed one, it was obvious that the activity was not working. So the organizer decided that we would all go back to the base camp and do only the miniquests.
One of the miniquests was taking socks out of a basin using a straw! The socks were new, don’t worry.
In the end, it was a nice day out! It beats being in the office, for sure! The winners got some prizes (the first being a polaroid camera) but my team didn’t win. In fact, we were second to last… hahaha.
But the team building day out had unforeseeable consequences! The day after half of the office was sick! We suspect it was the salads that we had in the picnic, but we will never know for sure. I ate salad and I didn’t get sick…
Have you ever done a team building activity at work?
Well, getting “sick” the day after a team activity would certainly serve as a nice warning to employers taking away free time for enforced “team-building.”
I think in the 90s there used to be a whole industry devoted to team building retreats in the U.S. The one time I went on one, it mainly made everyone cross.
Haha, well in this case they were really sick… everybody was puking and pooing all over :/
I dont know, somehow I really would like to try one of these team building events but then again I only heard not so great reviews about them :p
At least the socks were clean! (or perhaps they werent and thats how they got sick?) :D
Hahaha, they were new, but they had a weird plastic smell…
I’ve heard about these team building activities in Asia. So they are actually true. I haven’t experienced anything like this at the few places I worked in Australia. However, there always inspirational classes where a speaker is invited to come in to talk about dealing with stress, work, etc, and there is always some kind of group activity organised :D
That can also be interesting. I have never been to a motivational speech :D
Elaborate activities don’t work when there is a big group of people, chaos is always the guaranteed outcome! That’s why for company’s teambuilding nowadays, it is always either going to the cinema and conquer an entire hall, or booking an entire ballroom in a hotel for a nice buffet and lucky draw.
Hahaha that sounds quite good! We only have free dinner and lucky draw on the Chinese New Year party.
My office does not organize any team building activity (having fun? what’s this strange concept?) but they organize an “employees dinner”once a month (I never go) and two company dinners around CNY that are COMPULSORY. So I had to go. I really don’t get this idea that you need to forcedly spend time with your colleagues outside the office: if we wanted to spend time together we would hang out together spontaneously, wouldn’t we?
Hahaha, true. But it is customary also in China to organize a CNY company dinner (only one though, not two). It is not compulsory but I have always attended, free food, yay! Once a year doesn’t hurt :D Luckily I have always had friendly colleagues and I don’t mind spending time with them sometimes. But being forced to do it… nay.
It sounds like fun and a great way to spend that day doing something other than work! haha
When I worked in Taipei used to have a teacher’s day party for all teachers. However, the company then switched to having a large Christmas party for the foreign teachers [you could bring a guest] and a CNY dinner for the Taiwanese employees. It was always held at a western restaurant with an awesome buffet and free alcohol as well. I loved going to it [and so did my husband]!! My American friend [who also worked for the company] always organized it so it was a guaranteed blast.
When there is free food involved I find hard to say no ;P
So true! :)
No, but I worked for a children’s summer camp and many activities we did were geared towards that for the kids and even the counselors, overcoming fear and crazy fun activities and all that. So, I understand why companies do these kinds of things and it’s good, got to love opportunities to get out of the office! :D
Hahaha yes, if it is on a working day everybody gets very excited! But during the weekend… mmmm… no thanks :D
Hey, that blonde is a hottie!
I think she knows :D
Haha, yeah… Chinese team building activities are pretty funny. I got tricked into going to ours a week after I started working. We did the laser tag thing and a team challenge which honestly probably didn’t boost productivity all that much. It was amusing to see all our company ayis in laser tag gear though.
Haha at least it was fun!
At my job, we usually find out about our “team building” activities the day before they happen (always on a weekend). They aren’t too bad because the bosses at my job like to take free trips. This means visiting famous tourist sites, lakes and random amusement parks in the middle of nowhere. The sun fries my skin and my weekend reduced by 50% but a free trip is a free trip.
Ufff, it would have to be a trip to a very nice or expensive place for me to agree to go on a weekend… xD