May 10, 2012 at 9:58 am
That book talks about that. For the most part, it recommends you not drink, or have one, and do not bring your family, or bring them for short periods.
May 10, 2012 at 9:58 am
Just my opinion but it seems that the concept of team building is getting confused with social interaction...
Team Building is about growing and strengthening the team through an alternate perspective and environment with the ultimate goal of increasing productivity, cohesion, respect given and received, and enjoyment.
Team building is about raising awareness of the unique qualities of each member of the team and the ability to work in a cooperative way.
Team building usually does not include family, and probably should not include alcohol or other mind altering substances.
Team building is still a work thing with all the responsibilities that go along with being an employee and human being.
Who or how you choose to intereact on you own time is still your prerogative and rightly so, which may generate similar results to team building but may or may not be original goal.
Tom in Sacramento - For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following...http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/
May 10, 2012 at 10:03 am
When I worked sat Kennedy Space Center years ago I attended a company picnic. Just about everyone came and brought their families as well. All was going well until two teenagers from two different employee's families got into a argument over a stupid softball game. The one teenager ended up pulling a knife on the other teenager and wounding him so bad that paramedics had to be called out onto the softball field and the police were called as well and the teenager arrested. That pretty much ended the company picnic that afternoon. In the end the kid lived but was scarred pretty bad from it. It turned into a nasty lawsuit between the two employees and one of them finally had to leave the company it got so bad. I have never attended a company picnic since then. Keep business and pleasure separate thats my motto. Tom is right, teambuilding has nothing to do with social events anyway. 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
May 10, 2012 at 10:11 am
I worked for two different companies that had annual picnics for employees and families. One was a small company and the other a large privately held (at the time) company. I actually enjoyed the picnics. Could be I liked many of the people I worked with as well, even if some were pita's at work, in the end we still got along and got the work done.
The pot lucks that were held occasionally were also nice. We got together in a non-work setting, talked about things not work related. It was distracting and cordial.
No one is saying that you have to socialize with the people you work with outside of work. I know I don't. Doesn't mean you can't socialize with them at work, or a work related after hours event.
May 10, 2012 at 10:15 am
Tom.Hamilton.Sacramento (5/10/2012)
Great topic Steve - thanks,Here at Intel (Folsom), team building is an important part of our culture and a lot of smart effort goes into selecting activities and venues that encourage interaction in non-vocational areas and it works well.
Team building is a good thing in my experience whether a trip to the museum, learning to throw a rug, having a BBQ or paintball contest.
You have a really cute dog! Him/her, I could enjoy at an outing with - superdog contests anyone?
Travis, yours is very cute too. I love them both.
May 10, 2012 at 10:21 am
Informal, "away-from-the-office" interaction is critical to me. Formal channels are great for assignments, and well defined tasks; but hearing how the environment is doing from the people who have to use it makes the whole enterprise more effective. I work hard to cultivate conversations to create "back-channels" that let me hear how the rest of our community is experiencing the IT service. Help desks are a great way to capture user issues, but the angst and frustration a particular product is causing isn't always interpreted as a "problem." People tend to live with the pain they know. Finding out about new projects/initiatives doesn't always travel top-down, and the side conversations can bend the project to a better place just by cross team awareness!
I believe in lunch! It is informal enough that people can let their guard down a little, but keeps folks in a work mindset, so some of the alcohol related problems can be avoided!
May 10, 2012 at 10:33 am
Thanks, that's Scamp, my service dog. He is a blast and as an Aussie he's into catching ball or Frisbee (and bringing back!). Hope you have a great day
Tom in Sacramento - For better, quicker answers on T-SQL questions, click on the following...http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/
May 10, 2012 at 10:44 am
Thanks, I love dogs better than most people I know.:-D
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
May 10, 2012 at 11:37 am
TravisDBA (5/10/2012)
Thanks, I love dogs better than most people I know.:-D
Forget 'take your child to work day', I'm pushing for 'take your dog to work day'
...
-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
May 10, 2012 at 12:05 pm
jay-h (5/10/2012)
TravisDBA (5/10/2012)
Thanks, I love dogs better than most people I know.:-DForget 'take your child to work day', I'm pushing for 'take your dog to work day'
We do that every Friday PM. My miniature dachshund loves that.
May 10, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Question Guy (5/10/2012)
At my former company we had "Beer Friday" starting at 4PM,(ok 3PM unofficially) every week. It was fun. And typically we stayed a little bit longer on Fridays just because it was enjoyable to code under the influence at work.
_snicker_ and of course you always do you best coding under the influence.... well, that's only true for VB. lol
The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival.
May 10, 2012 at 12:20 pm
hmmm ... unless I missed it nobody mentioned the 'economic decline' that occurred in 2008, its impact and the 'slow' recovery. Prior to Q3 2008 there were monthly catered lunches, nothing spectacular, but still a perk. In house training (other than legally required) dwindled to a trickle, and of course external training and conferences all but dried up. Each and everyone of those things were in fact great social networking/team building events.
Yes, we recently had a department wide team outing that included family members but somehow it just wasn't the same. Doing more with less will be our downfall.
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
May 10, 2012 at 12:23 pm
djackson 22568 (5/10/2012)
Management - In my experience, this is what usually causes most of the issues. Team building does not work when you create an atmosphere that makes it impossible for people to like each other. When everyone gets the same compensation no matter their level of productivity, when highly productive people continue to have work piled on them while less productive employees slide through the day with nothing to do, when workers that produce quality are expected to pull double and triple the weight of those who make repeated mistakes - how can we expect people to get along? Employees can't complain, they get labeled as the difficult one. The only recourse is to internalize things, which leads to anger, which leads to conflict, all because management is all too often unwilling to do their job.
Remember, a team is only as strong as the weakest link, whether that be the manager or the worker.
Wow, well stated sir. I often wonder how some people can somehow hold on to their job with such a track record of incompetency... and so many people out there willing to work their butts off for the chance.
I guess if you are well liked management will overlook your incompetency more easily.
The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival.
May 10, 2012 at 12:49 pm
sturner (5/10/2012)
djackson 22568 (5/10/2012)
Management - In my experience, this is what usually causes most of the issues. Team building does not work when you create an atmosphere that makes it impossible for people to like each other. When everyone gets the same compensation no matter their level of productivity, when highly productive people continue to have work piled on them while less productive employees slide through the day with nothing to do, when workers that produce quality are expected to pull double and triple the weight of those who make repeated mistakes - how can we expect people to get along? Employees can't complain, they get labeled as the difficult one. The only recourse is to internalize things, which leads to anger, which leads to conflict, all because management is all too often unwilling to do their job.
Remember, a team is only as strong as the weakest link, whether that be the manager or the worker.
Wow, well stated sir. I often wonder how some people can somehow hold on to their job with such a track record of incompetency... and so many people out there willing to work their butts off for the chance.
I guess if you are well liked management will overlook your incompetency more easily.
Or they know you know something they don't want others to know.
I've seen this before at a previous employer. Individual is still there too.
May 10, 2012 at 1:31 pm
With the plethora of lawsuits out there right now I think most managers are just scared s-less that they are going to hurt someones feelings (even the deadwood) and end up getting a lawsuit filed against the company. So, as a result, they just reward everyone the same. What they don't realize (short-sighted as many of them are) is the very discontent they are trying to prevent in their own respective departments, they are actually causing more of by their own poor fear-based management decisions.:-D
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
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