злая@Di'n'Go (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} goga) wrote,@ 2008-03-28 02:30:00 |
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About Teambuilding
Teambuilding my ass. What can be more non-productive, or even counterproductive than so called teambuilding exercises. Those few I have participated in were plain mockery of what they were supposed to be. Needless to say I didn't do anything at best. Most of the time I was sitting at the table with my teammates (with my real teammates -- our "lunch club") pretending to participate in the farce, and doing what we usually do -- chatting about anything. While everyone else is solving some puzzle. Or assembling a bicycles for some children charity (isn't it ridiculous -- would you let your child ride such a bike? I doubt it. I doubt they would even pass any safety tests). Or doing something else equally pointless. All that while we are chatting.
So, the "lunch club". We are -- chinese, hindu, white american, egyptian-american muslim who knows everything about judaism, and me -- a jew who knows almost nothing about it. We are probably the most diverse and definitely the most politically incorrect group in the whole organization. We lunch together. Every day for 7 years. Every f*ing workday. And we talk. Chat, more precisely. There are no taboos. Race, culture (or lack of it), finances, gender, sex, politics, each one of us -- there's nothing off limits to us. We call things names. And we make fun of anything and anyone. If any of our talks reached HR we would be at least fired immediately. Don't even want to think about "at most". On the other hand -- one of us is our immediate boss. So you can say we have a direct line to management. Only he's not that big of a management. (He deserves a separate post, but in two words -- he could probably be anyone in the company -- if only he wished to. No serious technical decision is made without first consulting with him, and all that time while his colleagues were making careers, he was trying hard not to make it declining any promotions, until he was finally appointed our development manager -- almost forcibly). So we just talk freely, openly. Those people broke my stereotype of "dumb americans" when I first came to the country and didn't know anything except what that moron Zadornov was trying to put into our heads. And they are making my corporate life almost bearable. By chatting. Now, isn't that the greatest team building exercise?
And did I mention they are making my corporate life almost bearable? Oh yes, I did. I hope I’m returning the favour.
Teambuilding my ass. What can be more non-productive, or even counterproductive than so called teambuilding exercises. Those few I have participated in were plain mockery of what they were supposed to be. Needless to say I didn't do anything at best. Most of the time I was sitting at the table with my teammates (with my real teammates -- our "lunch club") pretending to participate in the farce, and doing what we usually do -- chatting about anything. While everyone else is solving some puzzle. Or assembling a bicycles for some children charity (isn't it ridiculous -- would you let your child ride such a bike? I doubt it. I doubt they would even pass any safety tests). Or doing something else equally pointless. All that while we are chatting.
So, the "lunch club". We are -- chinese, hindu, white american, egyptian-american muslim who knows everything about judaism, and me -- a jew who knows almost nothing about it. We are probably the most diverse and definitely the most politically incorrect group in the whole organization. We lunch together. Every day for 7 years. Every f*ing workday. And we talk. Chat, more precisely. There are no taboos. Race, culture (or lack of it), finances, gender, sex, politics, each one of us -- there's nothing off limits to us. We call things names. And we make fun of anything and anyone. If any of our talks reached HR we would be at least fired immediately. Don't even want to think about "at most". On the other hand -- one of us is our immediate boss. So you can say we have a direct line to management. Only he's not that big of a management. (He deserves a separate post, but in two words -- he could probably be anyone in the company -- if only he wished to. No serious technical decision is made without first consulting with him, and all that time while his colleagues were making careers, he was trying hard not to make it declining any promotions, until he was finally appointed our development manager -- almost forcibly). So we just talk freely, openly. Those people broke my stereotype of "dumb americans" when I first came to the country and didn't know anything except what that moron Zadornov was trying to put into our heads. And they are making my corporate life almost bearable. By chatting. Now, isn't that the greatest team building exercise?
And did I mention they are making my corporate life almost bearable? Oh yes, I did. I hope I’m returning the favour.
