I was not very excited when my boss informed everybody that we would be going on a weekend retreat together.
He wanted the entire team to attend so that we could build trust and communication skills.
Apparently, he did not believe that we could learn to get along in the office so he had to plan some elaborate trip for us to torture ourselves with. I wish that I could say that the trip turned out to be better than expected, but honestly it was just as miserable as I anticipated. When we first arrived at the rental house I was a bit surprised to find out that it was a central heating, cooling, and air quality control system that would be supplying all of the indoor air quality control. Apparently, they did not invest in zone control heating or cooling measures for the house. I wish that they had installed two separate mini split ductless heating and cooling systems like you would experience in a hotel, so that everybody could establish their own preferred indoor air quality control settings in their private room. Instead, we were supposed to cooperate to find one thermostat setting that would make everybody happy. You know that that was impossible. Half of the house wanted to use air conditioning and the other half of the house was still ready for the furnace to be engaged. We wound up figuring for the entire weekend, regularly fighting in front of the thermostat as we tried to gain control of the heating, cooling, and air quality control system. After our “team building retreat” half of the office quit.