Should You Say No to Sports at Work?

35 Comments

1. Kat, I am seeing/hearing Capital One audio ads and Verizon audio ads on this page.

   1. +1 to Verizon audio ads

      1. Same.

   2. Yep. Auto play of Verizon video ad with audio.

      It’s on the top right under the “sponsors” banner and above the “new here?” banner.

      1. Same ad and location.

         1. ARRRRGH. It just started for me 5x. Calling my ad company immediately.

            1. http://www.verizonwireless.com/?cmp=BAC-C-HQ-NON-S-AW-NONE-NONE-2B0OO0-MB-DE-PV-8624380_964387_116626345_62935544

               is the link I got.

               So frustrating for you, I know! I have my speakers super low but it was jarring!

            2. Thanks you guys. I sat here trying to remove all the ads and had literally five minutes of video just roll run right after the other. The ad networks are both looking into it.

   3. I’m also getting 3M ones that keep pulling me back up to where the ad is located. I can’t even scroll down from there.

      1. Same problem.

   4. +1 to Verizon ads

   5. I’m also getting audio ads

2. I am not sure about whether goeing to a pool party constitute’s “sports at work”, but the manageing partner has alway’s made it mandatory for us to go to his pool party, and for the women to wear bikini’s. Men do NOT have to wear speedos. I think that is b/c Frank and the manageing partner like to ooogle us women, even Madeline,who is NOT a batheing person. Frank like’s to grab us and throw us in the pool, and he get’s cheep thrill grabbeing at our boobie’s. FOOEY on Frank b/c he is MARRIED, but he does NOT bring his wife.

   The manageing partner also wanted me to go with him and the Judge GOLFING, but said I do NOT like golf, and I did NOT want them looking at my TUCHUS, partiularley when I retrieve the golf balls for the men. DOUBEL FOOEY on Men that look at my tuchus.

3. Also audio/video ads for petco on the main page, clicking takes me here:

   http://www.petco.com/N_92_4294930833/Food-Value-Natural.aspx?cm_mmc=INI_OLV-_-OLV_VIP_ValueNatural-_-SpotXchange-_-Preroll-Demo

4. In my pre-law school career, I worked in a construction industry and was responsible for planning a golf scramble. And I’d never even played golf before! Granted, my workplace was extremely casual and there were a few people who really loved golf and were good at it but everyone was a good sport about my complete lack of ability. In my case, I’d take the initial swing on each hole or drop my ball near the cup and putt and just let everyone else in my group play the entire game. That meant that I was with my group the whole time and participating somewhat. It was actually pretty fun. nobody cared that I was awful and didn’t even bother keeping my own score.

   My office was pretty much the opposite of a professional environment, so that method may not work for everyone.

   1. Actually, that’s great advice- when I was learning, that’s what I was taught to do. Drive the ball off the tee, maybe take another shot along the fairway, then pick it up and drop it off the green, pitch it on, and putt with the rest of the group. The most important thing is to not hold people up. I found other golfers to be pretty understanding, as long as I didn’t slow down the group (and the group behind them, and the group behind them . . . ;) ).

   2. This might convince me to try golf!

5. My reaction to this whole article is I Just Don’t Want To.

   1. Same.

      I am not a good athlete. I am uncoordinated and extremely self-conscious about playing sports with others, regardless of their comparable skill level. Suppose the preferred work group activity were karaoke. I love to sing and have no problem performing in front of strangers and colleagues. But would it be reasonable to expect everyone at the company to get up and sing? I feel like people would be much more understanding about refusing to participate in that situation.

      1. This is a great example! I sometimes use pedicures or yoga as examples of group activities that perhaps not everyone would want to do, but in fact those truly are accessible to almost everyone.

   2. Me too. It was just announced that my new job has an annual laser tag event coming up. I just don’t want to go so I am already formulating an excuse.

      On the plus side, they do have a minor league baseball night too. I may go to that.

6. I played in my first golf scramble with almost zero golf experience – that’s actually how I realized I love golf! I would not suggest being the cart girl and serving the beer – it’s a bad vibe. The best way to go is to play, admit that you’re terrible, and display an excellent sense of humor about your non-skills. Ask people for tips up front! Tell them it’s your first time! People will be much nicer that you expect.

   1. Yeah, the “driving the beer cart” seems weird. You’re a senior engineer, not a cocktail waitress, so don’t drive the beer cart.

      Just learn how to swing in a few lessons, tee off at every hole, and then play with the group. The whole point of a scramble is that ability level doesn’t matter. You’ll also be way better at the end of the course than you were at the beginning.

   2. I agree! It’s also one of those things that you certainly don’t have to do, but it’s a really really great way to network with other people. So, it’s much better to put the effort in and take a couple classes so you have some idea how to swing a club, than to just write it off completely. No one really cares how you play, as long as you have some basic idea about what you are doing.

      Don’t drive the beer cart. NO.

      1. This is my feeling, too. Usually the admin assistants do it…

         However, taking a ‘couple classes’ are not cutting it for me either. See below.

   3. Agree – do NOT volunteer to drive the cart, serve drinks or work the registration table. Unless you’re an admin.

7. My problem with these things is that I’m waaaaay too competitive and I want to win. In fact, I won’t join most running groups because of this. I abhor losing, and take everything to do with sports personally.

   That’s why I either do solo sports or hiking. I’m learning to golf, though.

   1. Yes!! That is exactly my problem. I play hard, focus on winning or trying to, get really sweaty, forget all about small talk (or scowl at people who hold up the game with it). I once beat the boss’ 11 year old daughter at hula-hooping, less than one month into a new job. If it’s a pool party, I’m likely to join the guys in a cannonball competition. I need help figuring out how to enjoy sports while not being too intense.

8. I once worked at a firm that held weekly volleyball tournaments. They made it clear that everyone was supposed to play. They kept score, emailed the results the following week, etc. To me that always seemed inconsiderate in the extreme. They had no idea whether I or any of the other employees had a medical condition that would make running around a bad idea. Requiring physical activity like that puts employees in an awkward position. Do I tell them I have a medical condition (embarrassing, especially for a new employee, and really just completely irrelevant to my ability to do the job)? Or do I just decline to play every week and end up looking like a killjoy? Ugh.

   If it’s not a physical job, I really strongly disagree with employers requiring participation in athletic activities.

9. Original question-asker here … I’m a little disappointed in the “take lessons! just swing!” answers in the original article and above. I’ve taken lessons – two different instructors, probably a total of 10 lessons – and still can not make contact with the ball most of the time on swings. I am not exaggerating. I’m sure I could learn eventually, but I really don’t want to invest significant amounts of time and money in lessons.

   Hence my question: “A lesson (or even a few lessons) are absolutely NOT enough to get me through a golf scramble. Can I swing and miss 18 times while joking gracefully?” I can tell you that I tried this at one scramble, and after about the 5th hole they asked me not to try anymore because I was holding everyone up.

   I’m not unathletic, either – although it shouldn’t matter either way. I’m a runner, backpacker, equestrian, yogini. Just not a golfer.

   1. Well no, you can’t swing and miss 18 times gracefully. You can swing and miss once on a hole, laugh at yourself, pick up your ball and let the next person play. The key word in your comment is that you were holding people up. Regardless of how well or poorly you play, holding people up is going to annoy people. I think it’s a missed opportunity to remove yourself completely from the event. I think it is entirely possible to go out there with a foursome, have a good attitude about being terrible, take one swing on the first hole, miss, poke fun at yourself a bit, and then let the next person go. I wouldn’t do this on every hole. After it was obvious that I was no good, I’d probably bow out of a tee shot on most holes and just say I was going to practice my putting or whatever, and drop a ball on the green once everyone else is up there. Know your group, but get yourself in a group that understands your capabilities and your approach to it. Surely you have a few people that you are friendly with at work that will be fine having you join their foursome and pretty much just ride along.

   2. I’m with ya, OP. There’s no way in hell I’d actually attempt to play. I’d make a lighthearted comment to my team about being too uncoordinated to swing giant metal weapons anywhere near people I actually liked, so it’d probably be best for me to remain a cheerleader for this particular sport. Then I’d buy a cute golf outfit and just have fun riding in the carts and chatting with people for 18 holes.

   3. I agree. No desire to golf, despite generally being up for almost anything, enjoying sports and being outdoors. I just don’t want to. I’m a lawyer who practices construction litigation. In the past, I’ve organized a non-golf event for non golfers during a golf outing, and they’ve been well received. Even some golfers just don’t want to participate in good or do something different. Consider suggesting the “outing” can include more people if there’s a spa networking function, tennis match, hike, whatever else can happen in the near vicinity as an alternative to golf.

10. No one is great at golf without lessons and a lot of effort. Learning to play can be even more discouraging for women. Most of us can’t muscle a long drive the same way a heavier guy can (at least, at first), so we think that we’re so terrible that we’ll never improve. Fewer and fewer people grow up playing golf. If you think that you’re so bad that people are starring, your either wrong or you’re playing with total jerks.

    I live in New England and work in a very active office. I don’t run, ski, or sail, for various reasons, which limits my involvement in corporate outings. At a certain point, I had to compromise and pick golf and bowling.

11. I used to work for a company that was definitely an “old white boys club.” Golf was the big thing, and if you were male and didn’t play, you were definitely at a disadvantage when it came to having any sort of a career. If you were female, you were definitely not expected to play because golf was a “man’s sport, and didn’t you ladies understand that big business decisions were made on the golf course?” (That was actually said to my friend who LOVES golf, is an EXCELLENT golfer, and had asked about joining the company golf league.)

    The company also had a bowling league and when they were short on people, a couple co-workers and I decided to join. We were not told that there were several teams on the league that considered it one step shy of the Pro Bowlers Tour and if you didn’t bowl on par with them (we didn’t. We sucked at bowling, actually, but we joined to have fun and blow off some steam after work) they would get rather nasty. After one season of putting up with mean comments from people who obviously missed their calling in life and should have taken up bowling instead of engineering, I decided I had enough fun and togetherness with my co-workers and would never join any kind of company team or sports league again.

    I now work in the construction industry and this industry is BIG on golf outings. Every week a different contractor is having an outing somewhere. Fortunately, enough people here are golfers, so I don’t have any trouble finding anyone who wants to go.

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