On 2/8/2014 5:13 PM, notbob wrote:
> On 2014-02-08, jmcquown > wrote:
>
>>
>> Don't get me started on the stupid "teambuilding" exercises...
>
> LOL!!..... oh, the memories.
>
> Wasn't it all so stupid? Middle mgt is the biggest waste/drain on
> corporate structure of all time. Astonishingly, it was identified as
> such way back in the 1970 in the brilliant book, Up the Organization
> by Peter Townsend.
>
> It was another 20 yrs before I actually experienced the fact that it
> was still alive and well and flourishing, Even in enlightened and
> progressive Silicon Valley, we had that nonsense. I can remember all
> the incredibly lame mid/mgt nonsense that went on. Team building,
> monthly meetings (the whole division!), PowerPoint presentations,
> weekly dept meetings, sig-sigma, mission statements*, etc. What
> hogwash!
>
It was all a major waste of time. And yes, they hired "consultants" to
plan the teambuilding exercises. Of course this was supposed to make us
work better together and be more productive. They never saw the irony:
you can't be productive if the entire "team" is stuck doing
"teambuilding" exercises rather than working.

I remember one departmental teambuilding thing: popcorn and a movie in
one of the conference rooms. Really? How's that supposed to help? (Of
course the movie *was* fun - 'Office Space'.)

When we had any kind of meeting someone had to carry the department
pager in case there was a critical software problem. Guess who
volunteered most often to have the pager? I'd much rather deal with a
database crash than sit and listen to the managers spouting nonsense.

> *Scott Adams, author of Dilbert, pulled the ultimate "mission
> statement" expose:
>
> http://articles.latimes.com/1997/nov/16/news/mn-54489
>
> nb
>
That's more fun than 'Undercover Boss'.

Jill