If anyone in my team books time off and I want to take the same weeks off, my request will be rejected. As someone with a child, I can only take holidays outside of school terms, so I plan quite far in advance and book the weeks of early. I've never been asked to switch dates nor have I asked anyone to swap

Yup, and stop being offended when I say I'm here for the money, "family" doesn't pay the bills

Got Covid at my workplace. TWICE! Stay the F home!!!

does not work well with introverts ... at all

The introverts' nightmare and absolutely useless. "Social studies" that result in this type of advice to employers are frauds, quacks. https://www.forbes.com/sites/lizryan/2016/09/22/the-ugly-truth-about-team-building/

These events end up with you speaking only with the colleague(s) you are already spoke to during normal business hours

It’s just the suits stroking themselves to feel better about abusing employees by wasting time and MONEY on these pointless pep rallies. Money better spent on raises and bonuses for those employees, FFS. I f*****g hated them, they did nothing but take me away from my desk and put me behind on my work. I usually sat in the back and only halfheartedly participated if I absolutely HAD to. At one place I worked, I wasn’t the only one who hated this, so the suits decided to have the presenter hand out these little “energy stones”, which were just those stones you put in a vase or plant pot, ffs. You HAD to sit through the c**p to get the stone on the way out, so you couldn’t just blow it off or sneak out. Anyone who didn’t show their stone to their manager got it noted in their employee file. Assholes. After I showed my stone to my manager I threw the f*****g thing in the trash. As far back as the eighties I maintained I would rather be paid more than to have to sit through that b******t time and time again.

The stupidest bonding events are those that have you bond with other store managers in a company where you have nothing to do with them. Team bonding time is far better spent getting to know my "team", at my store during work hours . That way we can all figure out how we all work best separately, and together. From the outside looking in, I was probably considered a far too lenient boss. I was told as much by my area manager. Our store was the best in the company, while he was trying to figure out how we were cheating. For my coworkers to actually want to come to me with their problems so they just have someone to talk to, or we can figure out how to help their situation. Not for the benefit of work, but so that they're okay. If someone is having a bad day at work getting annoyed at them doesn't help. Actually helping them as much as possible does.

Ugh, hate, hate, hate those events! I prefer to keep my personal and work life a separate as possible!

One time we had a company retreat at a nice lodge, overall it was fun. But the bosses paired me with a co-worker they thought I didn’t get along with. We cooked together, did team exercises and she poured her childhood to me (trauma and all). I felt so forced by it I couldn’t feel any empathy at all for her, I felt manipulated.

As an autistic introvert, the idea of forced social interaction no matter the circumstances makes me want to shrivel up in a corner and cry

I feel like this depends on the job and the type of event. If the job requires people to work together and the event is aimed at that, great. But not if the job is completely individual or the activities are more about making friends than creating a dynamic team.

I like team building events. People get to know each other more and do something fun together. Bot noone should be forced to participate.

Not my thing. I understand some like this, but please understand it's not for everyone.

I just "go to the restroom" when these hit peak dumbassery.

I always request the day as annual leave! Isn’t always accepted, but hoping after requesting the day off within minutes of the next forced team day email being sent round, my boss will finally get the message. Will be p*seed if she rejects it cos now other people want it off and I asked first, I don’t have kids and they do :(

I recall a Dilbert strip about this. Dilbert, Wally and Alice contrived a sequence to all fall over each other, and the instructor kicked them out. Teamwork succeeded.

Holiday parties.

Your employer can raise your morale by providing you bonds - savings bonds, corporate, bonds, municipal bonds, ... It really works!

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Team building is not about being friends, it's about connecting and for close working teams is essential to non toxic and positive productivity. Want to be treated like a human and be cared about, then do team building..otherwise you are no one to me and I will never know you or see you to care about you as a human. You will just be another online service. We did a coffee tasting last week, was very informative and got to learn everyone's perspectives on a multitude of topics. Will be very helpful moving forward , as knowing who they are as people helps me know their limitations and what I can expect. The more team building we have the more we know each other and the better we work together.

If you are ever tempted to think gender inequality is a thing of the past, remember this fact. Even in my 'female friendly' firstworld country (Netherlands) the average hourly wage for women is 13% less than for men, eventhough the women are better educated than the men.

If it's not paid it can't be mandatory.

In the USA it is a violation of federal law for employers to tell their employees to not discuss their salary.

In general? Yes agree without doubt! But... in case your manager for example is an incompetent arshole who stabs you in the back at any minimal chance and shows the team accomplishments off as their own... then I find it more than legetime to exactly let the incompetent, uneducated arsehole with their social intelligence of a potato look like the one he is in front of his bosses 😈

If you care about your workers mental health then just pay hire a therapist they can go to

Secret Santa is actually fun if done right. Create a budget limit and a wishlist based around it, draw lots to see who gets who and absolutely make sure to stick to the wishlist and not get too creative.

While a large portion of my work would be remote-capable, I prefer coming to the office for multiple reasons. My home office gear is actually better than the company's, but I prefer the short communication distances, the personal contact, and having archieves, sample collections and merchandise in reach. Also it helps with the separation of work and leisure - when I have left the office, only a major emergency will prompt me to answer my phone or use my laptop for work purposes.

I considered my immediate bosses' job was to find answers when I needed them, and keep me supplied with what I needed to do my job. Otherwise, just let me do my job.

And then praising and proudly "sharing" the donors' "generosity" with the whole world instead of shaming the employers for their feudal policies.

This what I dislike the most in people

I think this is an American workplace thing. Never saw that mentality anywhere I've lived or visited in Europe.

Yeah, don't do this. If you want to help, just donate straight to the charity. Want to know why they push so hard for 100%participation? Because when you donate through the corporation, all that money is considered to come ~from the corporation~ and guess who gets the tax write off for that donation? Why, the corporation,of course...same thing happens with donations made at check-out. If you want to donate, it should go from your pocket to the charity...no middle-person.

Agree, no need to make someone spill their guts about how they like to sleep naked on a thick layer of sauerkraut

Ask my anti-social a$$ to do this & watch what happens 🤣🤣🤣

If you're sick, you're sick and entitled to your PTO.

Here's what I learned works everywhere: you are valued based on what you're paid. Sell yourself off as the bargain basement special, don't be surprised if you're taken for granted. The trick is to not put any attitude into the not putting in extra hours; don't say "I'm not getting paid to do this". Just don't do it, and if there's no other way (for instance you're left holding the bag last teacher in and a parent is late, you can't dump the child off in the street) make sure you file for overtime.

This is a really good one. They don't do our job, they don't know how long things take. They usually are clueless as to what skills we possess that are greatly beneficial to the role we are in. Yet we are not consulted when it comes to processes or hiring new employees.

This is particularly twisted.

Don't yell, period. If someone does anything wrong there are other more civil and effective ways to let them know why a mistake needs to be fixed and avoided. Yelling doesn't solve anything (EDIT typo)

Go home early, but if you are paid by the hour, expect a deduction.

When they say "had to" does it mean felt obliged or pressured or does it mean they had no choice and forced to? There is no way I would donate that amount of money and it must be illegal to make it mandatory surely??

Mood. I was helping train a new person last year and we only had one day a week we worked together but her supervisor was lazy af about training people. So she was only learning new things when I was there, which sucked because my primary job is not to train people. The supervisor firmly kisses the manager's a$$ though so that's why the problems he causes don't get addressed.

As in "The secret to success is knowing who to blame for your failures."?

Becky needs to do what you do and book the time off in advance.

She?

"we want employee to feel valued but not spend any money or effort to do it. Let's have them work off the clock and buy the food out of their paycheck"

This is just people who have no balls to say anything to anyones face which is 95% of people lately. It’s as if your trained not to be confrontational because it’s deemed as bad. I’ve never handled an issue quicker without confronting it.

Even if they microwave fish? Surely we should speak up about that

Hey, you are looking good today, not everyone could pull that off...Per my last email, where the fu@k is the report our department needed two weeks ago?...It always impresses me how little effort you put into your work.

They are probably upset that they are orienting you on top of their workload, and effectively acting as supervisor for you without the pay raise. They shouldn’t be taking it out on you though.