The customer experience of team building days

For many members of the white collared workforce there are few calendar entries to be feared more than the upcoming prospect of an offsite day enduring a team building exercise.  These have become more complex weaving in company principles in a clumsy fashion as you attempt to build an exact scale model of the Leaning tower of Pisa using macaroni pasta shells. Building teams and increasing morale are common problems for modern businesses and an appealing solution is to engage the services of an external company and get everyone running around outside instead of the usual office politics they would ordinarily face on a day to day basis. Arriving at your designated venue to survive some form of an ice breaker where you dance like a chicken or expose your sporting prowess as zero through inability to catch a ball. The day quickly begins to drag as you face various challenges grouped together with office colleagues you would normally avoid like the plague. Competitive natures rear their heads as the afternoon wears on and as individuals become distracted by the prospect of winning a bottle of Le Piat D'Or at all costs destroying colleagues in their paths as they seek to win the latest challenge of the day. In the event of an overnight as part of this punishment alcohol gets thrown into the mix and the gloves really come off as teams let each other really know what they think of them after a healthy dose of drinks to loosen the tongues. The morning after and all team morale having been sapped out of them sees a return to business as usual with team bonding at an all time low and new enemies notched up on the hate list. Office team bonding. Not exactly an epic customer experience for the attendees of the companies stumping up cash for the privilege.