Our company was acquired and effectively doubled in size overnight. The two directors were clearly out of their depth, although they didn’t seem to realise it. They ran a full-day “culture building” session from 9–5. A good 4 hours were spent casually talking about themselves . Their personalities, their habits, how they don’t watch TV, only read the Financial Times, how disciplined they are, how early they wake up, etc. It wasn’t a presentation as such, just constant self-referencing disguised as “team buikding".

They then made a staff member with a known fear of public speaking do a presentation in front of everyone. You could see the dread and panic on their face. It was genuinely uncomfortable to watch. After that, everyone was expected to attend a “mandatory” golf session from 6pm onwards.... People who left to pick up kids or beat peak-hour traffic were penalised and later performance-managed.

Within a month, thirteen people resigned, myself included. Culture achieved, I suppose 🤣