The Mandatory Fun

Team building. Bowling. Escape rooms. That bar thing where you paint and drink wine.

“Attendance is optional but strongly encouraged.” Which means mandatory. You know it. They know it. Everyone pretends otherwise.

Mandatory fun is the company’s way of saying “we know morale is bad but we’d rather spend $2,000 on bowling than address why.” It’s a bandaid on a staffing problem. A pizza party during a death march.

The cruelest mandatory fun is the one scheduled right after layoffs. “We know things have been tough.” Yeah. Steve got fired on Tuesday and now we’re at a ropes course on Thursday. Processing that at a trust fall.