The Top 10 Worst Team Building Events

This week I was going to give you a case study of one of our awesome End of Financial Year team building events – of which there are many.

In June and July you can find our performers in offices, pubs, restaurants and various other venues across Australia. Creating relaxed, fun and engaging environments for people to finish the financial year.

But, I decided that it would probably be more fun to read about the humiliating team building experiences of others.

Here are the Top 10 WORST Team Building Events:

1. The Worst Ice-breaker in the World

“I work at a non-profit agency of the blind, and a large percentage of our staff is blind. At the last holiday party at my office the upper management hired a DJ and told him to come up with some ice breaker games. The only ice-breaker this DJ could come up with was a game where the players had to keep toilet paper rolls in between their legs, and another player had to use a toilet plunger to try to spear the rolls from between the other person’s legs.

What this amounted to was that we had a bunch of blind people thrusting a wooden plunger at each others’ crotches. It did not end well.”

2. “Constructive” Criticism

“During a previous job, I worked in a team that was having trouble getting along, so they brought in someone to help us work together as a team. First activity? We had to go around the room and tell each other what we didn’t like about each other. All of us had to add what we did like about each other but I honestly only remember the criticisms and the people bursting into tears. We went from simply not being able to work together to actively disliking each other in about 30 minutes. Then we ate a boxed lunch and ended the day by filling out personality tests.”

3. You’re invited… to work at the party!

“I was working in a sandwich shop with only six employees. The owner invited all of us to a formal holiday party at his house. I didn’t realize until I showed up – in my only fancy party dress – that I was expected to work the event, serving the owner’s friends and family!”

4. Fishy Gift

We no longer have Kris Kringle in our office as about two years ago someone brought a live fish wrapped up as a gift. As everyone picked a gift and shook it I can only imagine what the giver was thinking! I also felt bad for the co-worker who ended up with the fish because he then had to take it home and buy a fish tank (it was wrapped in the plastic cup it came in from the store) and all the stuff to take care of it.”

5. It’s a Zoo

“We had an exercise run by a consultant who determined what kind of workplace animal each of us was. The boss turned out to be a ‘lion’ (surprise!). I turned out to be a ‘monkey,’ which was great. My co-workers were told that they weren’t allowed to tell me to tidy my workspace because it would stifle my natural simian creativity.”

4. Naked Relationships

“I work in Japan, and my worst team-building exercise was taking a bath with my boss and supervisors, although only of the same gender. It’s called ‘naked relationships’ and is thought to build trust. After showering and washing your hair in a group facility, you sit in the bath (which is a natural hot spring) together and talk and bond. The idea is that when you are naked, everyone is equal and you will feel free to discuss things and joke about things that you wouldn’t in the office setting.”

5. Temple of the Dolphin

“I once had to sit through two hours of a team-building exercise that first involved us all sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding hands with our eyes closed, while the leader described us flying over the ocean into the “temple of the dolphin.” She got very vivid in her description of this imaginary place. It was incredibly difficult not to laugh. After we opened our eyes, we had to watch videos of dolphins and point out the leadership skills they were demonstrating. I am not joking. We did that for well over an hour.”

6. Bumper Cars

“I attended a large international conference and was made to play a game called “bumper collision”. The conference MC started to play music and instructed all the delegates to “drive” around in imaginary bumper cars throughout the room. When the MC blew a whistle, everyone had to stop and “collide” into someone else. After the crash, the two drivers “exchange information” and introduce themselves until the whistle blew again and driving resumed.

As if driving around in a make-believe bumper car didn’t make you feel like an idiot enough, purposefully colliding into a business colleague doesn’t exactly say, “I’m an intelligent professional.”

7. Outdoor Activity

“One of the top people at one place I worked organized a mandatory party on a weekend afternoon and made it clear people had to show up at 1 p.m. Hourly workers didn’t get paid for their time but had to show up (he had someone take attendance), and when everyone got there, they discovered that the food and the big prize drawing were not going to be held until three (or maybe four) hours later. The party was outside and he supplied a lot of beer and not much else. Partway through it started to mist and drizzle. The boss wouldn’t let anyone who wasn’t a supervisor inside his home — not to get out of the rain, and not to use the bathroom. There were no other facilities. And they took attendance again when the food came out to make sure everyone had stayed.”

8. Purging Ceremony

“My office went through an incredibly difficult period when we added a new associate and it went horribly. He had to be let go and it was hard on the entire staff, as everyone had resentment toward various components of his work ethic (or lack thereof).”

“A consultant recommended a team-building retreat out of town, complete with cabins, dinners out, shopping on the owner’s dime, etc. It was all fun and games until the consultant held an increasingly uncomfortable debriefing session where we had to write down what didn’t like about the associate who was fired, then had to go around and share aloud. Then the consultant passed around a box for the slips of paper and presented the box to the owner and very seriously said, ‘When you are all at the office again, you need to have a purging ceremony and burn this box with all the baggage inside.’ The owner’s face looked like he wanted to pass out and the rest of us wanted to run away.”

9. Brumm Brumm

“At a previous work place my boss decided that we needed to do some team bonding to “reinvigorate the workplace”. She gave everyone a card with a vehicle on it, such as a sports car, truck or old wagon. She then proceeded to hand out blindfolds! Once we had all covered our eyes we then had to make the noise that we thought the vehicle would make to find the other people assigned the same cars. The result was a room full of people blindly groping each other while sounding like traffic in grid lock.”

10. The Raisin

“At a Rural Doctor’s conference all participants and their partners were made to attend a workshop on self-care. The purpose of this was to highlight the fact that many Doctor’s and their partners often neglect their own health. To illustrate the benefits of taking care of ourselves we were given a raisin and instructed to close our eyes. The next hour and a half involved a group of about 100 doctors and their partners being guided by the voice of a husky woman in a jumpsuit getting us to smell, feel and taste the raisin. I swallowed mine in the first 5 seconds and fell asleep.”

Avoid a terrible event and consult with Applause Entertainment!

Whatever it is you need for your parties or corporate celebrations – Applause has you covered! Let us know the specifics of your event over the phone because we’d love to hear about it! For example, direct communication with our entertainment specialists will help us figure out which entertainment would best suit your event.

We offer high-quality and professional entertainment services in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Tasmania & Canberra. Available across Australia – we’d love to hear about your event and how we can help. To be sure your entertainment makes your event memorable, consult with us today!

As with all Applause Entertainment events, the entire planning process is simple! Consult with us today over the phone as to what you need at your event. We want to make it happen! Call 1300 261 545