# Team building is a lie



## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

I think team building is bull****. Does anyone else think so?

All these crappy business dinners to 'get to know each other', for 'better team oiling'. No, **** you, if I happen to hate someone in the group I am not going to like him in the future. No, I keep my grudges permanently.

Being a team coordinator for a group assignment I must say I found the 'team building sessions' useless. What's the use of all that faking? I am not going to get to know anyone better. No one is going to get to know anyone better. They're all just going to show up, say almost nothing and secretly hate each other.

I don't know about you but I don't believe in team building. People are selfish, vicious, backstabbing creatures and it will stay the same as long as the genome stays the same.


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## StNaive (Feb 21, 2013)

Although I agree that most team-building exercises are pretty much useless, I don't think your outlook on people and grudges is really healthy either.

You'll always hate the people you work/interact with if you reject the one actual team-building method which is just cooperating with each other respectfully. I doubt most teams all "secretly hate each other," too. I know it's not like that at my school; based on your threads I get the feeling the entire culture of your university is kind of messed up, but that doesn't mean that all people/students/schools are like that, or that you should stoop to the level of the people you hate.

I don't know. I think the best thing you can really do for yourself in working this problem out is try to see people in such a negative light and holding grudges so strongly. That is the best and simplest way to improve your team dynamics since it's entirely within your control, even if it isn't easy.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

Cooperating with each other respectfully is almost impossible with younger people.

My life experience and my parental advice has shown me that people are not good creatures. If you sit down and you deeply think about it, no one is un-selfish or un-hateful. 

I just do whatever I can to get through my degree but I hope in the professional world people will be nicer. Which brings me to another topic: a friend of mine worked as a programmer at a bank for a year. People were smiling and being friendly at him all year long. At the end of the year when he was off for review, guess what? He came to hear from his boss that no one liked him, that they all hated him for being 'slow and stupid'. That's humanity for you: a smile up front and a nice sharp knife in your back.


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## seafolly (Jun 17, 2010)

I agree with StNative that your attitude probably needs an adjustment for such things to have any effect. If every person you meet is considered selfish and all these other negative things, to you, no it won't be better in the professional world. As for your friend, my guess is his coworkers took the professional route in maintaining a proper working relationship with him. How they really feel isn't of consequence unless he's under review. If they genuinely didn't like working with him they can't lie about that. In the workplace your job is to get along to get a task done efficiently. 

As one who uses team building as part of my job description among people ages 12 to 18, I can confidently say there IS a difference to be made. I've seen remarkable changes in teenagers who were insanely difficult to work with, who thought it was all "bull****" and had a generally crappy attitude. At some point they decided to open their minds a bit. That said, I think the programming has a lot to do with it and dinners probably won't be too effective but that's just my opinion.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

It's hilarious how people keep throwing off statements as their opinion just to protect themselves.


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## s12345 (Jul 11, 2011)

> If every person you meet is considered selfish and all these other negative things, to you, no it won't be better in the professional world


 Not really, not to me. It is not 'to me', it is a general fact. E-v-e-ry h-u-m-a-n b-e-i-ng is selfish.


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