Team building splits people because the people who rate it are not the people who chose it. YouGov's 2021 British survey found 42% had been on an official workplace exercise, with participation skewed by job type: 52% of ABC1 households against 29% of C2DE. Among those who had been, the verdict on whether it worked was close to even: 43% agreed their team worked together more effectively afterwards, 49% disagreed. The feeling about it was not close at all. Sixty percent said they found the experience embarrassing or cringeworthy, and women were more likely to say so than men, 64% to 56%. Asked what emotion the prospect brings up, dread was the most common answer at 40%, rising to 48% among women, against 13% who chose approval and 12% excitement. That is the argument in miniature: the people who commission team building are rating an outcome, and the people sent on it are rating an afternoon. Both can be accurate at the same time, which is why the practice keeps surviving its own reviews.