Not my idea of fun!

[catnapper]

My boss has a gift for us as an office for next week. He wants to close the store and take us all out together. Food will be provided. Best of all, we get credit for working while doing something fun. He has tickets to a local event. He was nearly bursting at the seams with excitement about this outing.

Ok, so I got all excited about this mysterious event. I finally pried it out of him...... a baseball game. What. The. Heck. You're kidding, right? It sounds like punishment Honestly, I can think of several things I'd rather be doing.... root canal, swim through a cess pool, stick needles in my eye! Anything but sit 2-3 hours through a baseball game!

So.... while everyone goes to a game at 6:00, I get to work from 9-6...... and then stay to keep the office open til 9. Yes, the 12 hour day sounds like more fun than going to a baseball game. You could not pay me enough money to entice me to a game. I told my boss how miserable I'd be. The noise, the crowd, the heat, the food (hot dogs are evil burp machines while funnel cakes are gifts from God, and not allowed on my "diet", which makes them an unfair tease). I told him I'd be absolutely miserable and would have no problem sharing my misery. So he said to stay at work. I said "okie dokie -- DEAL!" He looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. Who would choose to stay at work insted of having fun at a ball game? Me! that's who!


SURELY I can't be the only weirdo to think America's favorite pastime is a big-ole bore.

[Karen]

I'd take the game, any day, but Paul would agree with you! And no, I wouldn't eat the hot dogs or the funnel cake, but would enjoy the camaraderie and the baseball game itself.

[Edwina's Secretary]

As a part of my job responsibilities I sometimes have to come up with an outing for a work group. You have no idea how difficult it is to find something everyone will enjoy. You can never win. As often as not it is an event I would just as soon forgo but I do it because it is what most of the group wants to do and provides a good time for them.

I feel for you boss...who thought he was doing something special...who was "nearly bursting at the seams with excitement." I have been there and know the killjoy when someone says they would rather have a root canal.

I hope he can at least expense the tickets so he isn't out personally. I suspect he will think a long time before he does something like this again.

[cassiesmom]

Uhmmm... could you go, and leave half-way through the game, or is transportation being provided? Can you have someone call you on your cell phone a couple of hours after the game starts-- so you have an excuse to leave? You have to be somewhere very early the next day? If you do end up working I hope the office will be very quiet while everyone is gone.

[Alysser]

I am SO glad I am not the only one who feels this way! My siblings and parents LOVE baseballs games - especially YANKEE games. I HATE going to Yankee Stadium, it's not worth the money and it is NEVER fun for me. Not to mention, Yankee Stadium is the biggest over-rated rip off ever. I just don't like sitting and watching games, I just find them so boring. The food is the best part in my book I agree, I'd choose work probably.

[mrspunkysmom]

Well "affordable" tickets are in nosebleed territory. Went with ex-boyfriend to a college basketball game. needed my telephoto lens to see any action. That was just a social outing. Not a game.

I like a real game where I can see the game unaided. Or on TV.

I'd choose to work too.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I know that I would be bored to death too. I can't stand watching sports in person or on tv. In high school when my friends and I would go to some of the football games, we hardly watched them. We were too busy talking or walking around with each other so we'd miss most of the game. Too bad you don't have the option to just stay home that day.

[Karen]

Out of curiosity, catnapper, what would be your idea of a fun office trip for everyone? And how about others?

[thbaker41]

Would have went to the game I dont watch baseball on tv but its alot of fun being there Im going to one this sat the Bowlinggreen Hotrods never been to one of there games yet but the city just built a new field and its really nice plus the tickets were free. Now if it was a soccer game I would have chose to stay at work soccer has to be the most boreing sport ever to watch

[Freedom]

I have never been to a baseball game. I have never watched one on TV. But a 12 hour work day? Um, I'd have taken the 3 hour "gift!"

[Lady's Human]

I absolutely despise mandatory fun days.

The military is big on them. What, living in each others' hip pockets, training, and hanging out together on our own isn't "team building" enough?

Want to do me a favor? Give me a couple hours off. The last thing I want to do is spend more time with people I already spend 8+ hours of my day with.

[pomtzu]

I'm not a big baseball fan and have never been to a game, but will occasionally watch a World Series game if the local team makes it. If it was an office outing I might consider going if it was in cooler weather, but definitely not in the heat of summer.

When I was working, the company president had deep sea fishing trips for anyone who wanted to go. I love the ocean but never went, since I easily get seasick!

[moosmom]

I'm with you, Kim. I don't know why he would choose a game. Like you said, not everyone likes it. I think he could've given everyone a choice or taken a poll as to what interests them.

When I worked at Xerox, they used to plan fun events, which coincided with a "business meeting" (probably for tax purposes). One year they had a huge dinner meeting with a weekend of skiing at Mt. Snow. It was wonderful.

Too bad he wouldn't give you time off instead.

[Cataholic]

I think the intention was to get everyone out, outside of work, and hope for some camaraderie. From some of the things you have shared about your workplace, it sounds like it is needed!

I worked with a girl, nothing was ever good enough. We would have 'catered' lunch- she hated it. We would have 'jeans day'- jeans are too uncomfortable. We would have drinks after work- she doesn't drink. The list went on and on and on. Ten years later? She is still miserable, at her third job. Too bad, cause ten years is a really long time to be miserable.

I don't like baseball, or any spectator sports, really. But, I would have gone, with a smile on my face, and a few topics of non work convo in my head to keep things interesting.

[smokey the elder]

Companies I've worked with had "company-wide" events rarely; the best one was a picnic at the Milwaukee County Zoo at my first job. Company picnics with assorted activities are often wins; people can hang out and eat, or take part in numerous activities, or not as they preferred.

They also offered on a pay per use basis: bus trips to NYC or Boston, to a ball game, play, etc; the Bronx Zoo, Foxwoods, etc, that again people could partake or not.

Best work outing story I've heard: one job had a bus trip to NYC to see the Lion King...on Sept. 15, 2001, with a dinner at a churrascaria (sp? Brazilian grill.) They decided to carry on with the trip, and both the theater and the restaurant were very grateful that the trip went forward.