Saw in the paper that Royal Bank of Scotland flew 100 staff in from 11 countries for a party at the swanky Grand Hotel in Eastbourne. Apparently they had an all night bar and a scrummy looking menu (although being hotel food it was probably over ambitious as well as over priced).
RBS spin doctors said "This was an entirely appropriate working event" little wonder they are going down the pan then is it?
Mind you this kind of corporate jolly, that often goes under the banner of team building, is not restricted to the banking sector.
The sad thing is that, despite the totally mad amounts of money wasted on these events, a large proportion of the people who go don't even want to be there.
The average person actually resents being made to spend time on pointless team building exercises, just how practical is to build rafts out of office furniture or to roleplay completely bogus situations with some company stooge? Or being bored shitless by presentations where no one remambers anything other than being told they have all done really well but will have to work harder and smarter in the future.
Then there is the horror that is the social side, being forced to spend time with people you often hold in utter contempt while having to be polite to the bastards. If you are really unlucky you may even get a motivational talk from a micro celeb who rows a boat a bit fast, runs around a bit or something else that the management think will motivate you.
Frequently people are lent on to attend these pointless piles of corporate wank, have to give up their own free time to be there and the company expects them to be grateful. Listen up folks save yourselves the cash we won't fucking miss any of it!
The only people laughing are the management consultants who con companies into thinking this nonsense is a good idea and the corporate travel parasites who line their pockets at the shareholders or, in the case of the public sector, you and me, the poor old taxpayer's expense.
