I suggest she go, enjoy herself, and before you know it, she will have a bunch of new friends at the firm. After all, we want to enjoy our work, don’t we?

More to the point: I also cringe at the mandatory group games; I hate the “forced friendship” component of it; I can picture the Dwight Schroot role as head cheerleader of it; and I know exactly how the writer feels, regardless of his/her gender.

And yet…I have to admit, the darn stuff can really work. I’ve seen it too often over the years. Forced interaction, no matter how flakey it sounds, really does create moments of levity, and shared experience, even if it’s a common bonding about the flakiness of the event.

Similarly, in the field of soft skills training, nothing beats role-plays; this is true despite that everyone (me too) universally groans when it comes time to do them. Yet we learn from them.

The ones who continue to protest, who opt out quickly or otherwise sabotage the games, are not the ones who we respect for their air of independence and inner security. In my experience, they are in fact the ones who are terrified of intimacy, who can’t take a joke, who are really struggling with an inability to get along well with others and are desperately looking for some way out.

They are, in short, kind of pathetic, in the sense of to-be-pitied.

My advice–grin and bear it, find a few yucks in it–and in so doing, you’ll actually get something out of it. Like a few friends.

Corporate american may be dumb, but it ain’t stupid. These things keep getting done for a decent reason. The world is moving in the direction of need more and more collaboration and teamwork, not less and less. And law firms are not exactly leading the way in playing nicely in the sandbox with others. We can all use this stuff. Suck it up, like medicine it’s good for you, you can tell by the bad taste.

Come to think of it, maybe El stands for El Salvador or “Elevated Trains”, neither of which sound very appetizing for us “REAL” men.

You ought to try and work in firm, where men are men and women are women, and there is a good rapport between the men and women, if not more.

PS: I take it you are a woman, El (sometimes we come across androgenous types on the website, but somehow I have you pegged as a female)

Go enjoy it as much as you can; don’t go too far afield; you don’t want to be known as the loud new associate who can’t control her emotions either.

Who knows, maybe you’ll even meet some nice guy there and you will be able to better stomach long nites at the office with him. Think positive, not mousy!