SINGAPORE: If you’ve ever stared at a team building or team bonding invitation in your email inbox and lamented with a facepalm, “Oh no… Not again… Why must I see these people again after 6 pm?” — then meet your new office spokesperson, or rather, workforce avenger: Tommy, a Singaporean TikToker who just gave voice to your inner scream.
In a video that’s racked up close to 30K views, nearly 60K likes, and a flood of 1,270 comments, @tommynbcb went full-on “Enough is enough!” mode — from the front seat of his car — on why after-hours team bonding is, well… just bo liao! — That’s Hokkien for boring or meaningless.
“If you are an employer or a manager, and you want to do team bonding, can you do it during office hours or not?” Tommy rants in his video.
@tommynbcb
According to Tommy’s logic, no staff schedules family lunchtime or bubble tea dates during office working hours or meetings, so why do companies think it’s OK to hijack the staff’s personal time after office working hours for the company’s “mandatory fun”?
“I don’t even want to be there!”
Tommy’s rant is action-packed with raw humour and relatable verbal grenades, just like this ouch bomb:
“Why would I want to play four hours of ‘Escape Room’ with you when every day, for eight hours, I’m trying to escape you?!”
That was simply a direct hit! A headshot, even, and if you thought that was the end, wait until you hear his suggested solution to all these involuntary meet-ups:
“If you (boss) don’t do it (team bonding), it’s the best, but you have to do it, right? Then you choose! Don’t ask me to choose! I don’t even want to be there!”
“Instead of spending cash on team bonding, just give us S$100 or S$200…”
The response from fellow burnt-out employees was nothing short of a digital uprising.
One Singaporean offered a playfully defiant suggestion: “Team bonding can lah. Play games like hide and seek. Location: the whole of Singapore!”
Another commenter kept it brutally honest: “People who enjoy bonding with colleagues outside work hours are people who don’t have actual friends.”
Others proposed a more straightforward alternative: “Instead of spending cash on team bonding… just give us the cash… extra S$100 or S$200 is appreciated.”
Another poor spirit shared a hilarious horror story: “My company had a team-building session. We had to fill out a survey afterward. I voted ‘No’ to doing it again next year… I thought it was anonymous… but alas, my full name showed up under the vote.”
And the real kicker was from a disillusioned worker: “Team bonding is the most Bo Liao activity. Everyone is pretending to be friendly. After the event, you still hate or dislike the person.”
“Company events should be held on company time…”
According to some who poked fun, employees are not against building rapport; they just ask not to make it an unpaid overtime session. They actually prefer cash over whatever else.
As one fired his shot: “Company events should be held on company time. Otherwise, don’t hold them. Outside office hours, I’m not your employee, subordinate, manager, or colleague, and conversely, you are not my boss. If you would like to engage my additional time and effort, this will be subject to mutually agreed arm’s length consultancy fees for my engagement.”
That’s him basically saying, “If you want my time, then pay consultancy fees.”
He also added his sympathy to greenhorn workers: “I feel for the younger ones, though. They are not like us, who are more senior, have more mileage and bargaining power, and aren’t so easily bullied.”
While some worry Tommy’s attitude towards team bonding may get flagged by a company as “not a team player,” others insist on sending his video straight to their own company HR or bosses… anonymously, of course.
So, the next time a well-meaning boss decides team bonding should happen at 9 a.m. on a Saturday or even a Sunday (yes, someone actually said this had happened), hopefully they’ll hear Tommy’s war cry below:
“We got life outside working hours, you know?! We got friends. We got family. We know your work is your life, but it’s not for us.”
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