Outdoor Adventures

[Justin C]

Thanks, ksquared, for passing along the team-building story. It was yet another reminder that my decision to retire several years ago was a correct one. Over the 30 years that I worked for the same company, what started out as a small Personnel Department turned into a monster called Human Resources. Part of its kingdom-building were training programs like you described. I'm also an introvert who performed well in real-life problem-solving situations on the job, but who hated the role-playing stuff in training sessions.

If your boss is rooted to any degree in reality, as mine thankfully always was, your on-the-job performance will overshadow anything that happens in training sessions.

A year or so ago, after being retired for several years, I was in a audience listening to a speaker who announced that we were to gather in small groups and talk about our feelings on whatever her topic was and report back to her. As we rose to form the small groups, I headed for the door. Someone asked, "Justin, you're not leaving, are you?" to which I replied, "Watch me." It felt wonderful to be able to run away.

I think the problem is that extroverts tend to run a lot of things and don't realize or care that some of us aren't geared to operate as they do.