Social pressure from management at work

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Management organized an activity I can't join due to health issues and they're pissed at me for not joining. This will weigh down in my evaluation. But if I joined and got hurt (as it would undoubtedly be the case) they'd be pissed that knowing my health situation I joined anyway. Others in the company are afraid of getting hurt too, but they all joined. I guess NTs prefer to risk their health to risk being labeled an outsider.

Looking forward to your comments!

Hurt!! !

What is the activity?


At a suitable point (team meeting), preferably with others around ask for suitable alternative activity which would achieve the same end result (team bonding?) but without the risk of harm and inclusive aware of peoples abilities and issues.

Maybe first discuss in a small group and work together? i.e. find someone who's good vocally to get the point across! Y'know, that one team manager who does actually remember peoples names and takes time to ask how you are...

The activity is running around for hours on little competitive missions in groups in the desert under 45 degrees heat during an extreme heat wave tomorrow noon, when the gov't has been warning the population not to leave their houses in the cities - let alone in the desert.

There's a high risk of uncontrollable fires (as we had them last heat wave too, last week). I'm extremely sensitive to strong sun rays and always faint under them. HR have informed me officially that there won't be any little spot in the shade for me to stand and wait for the activity to end - it's all just sand.

Take an umbrella, but be careful not to poke HR's eye out!

When many people asked for the activity to be cancelled, we were sent an email saying that it was cancelled, but when I asked HR to confirm it was cancelled, they told me it wasn't, not at all. So I guess the email was a lie. They also lied to our company guests (15 managers from overseas) about the temperature and because those guests don't know the local language, they don't know what they're saying in the News.

I can't believe you succeeded in drawing a smile out of me in all my upset now. Thank you, rarebit.

Touché

What a horrible activity, are you in India, I saw on the news it is 45 degrees there.

Middle East. In Farenheit it's 113 degrees.

rarebit, I've read the email again and in fact they say that they reduced the activities in the sun to a bare minimum, not that they cancelled them. It doesn't help me, though, as I can't be in that strong sun for even a minute without fainting. Maybe my health case is so rare they didn't believe me... I think that high sensitivity to strong sun is frequent in our aspie species.

That is TOOO Hot.

I have no helpful advice, just a link about horror stories from team building exercises. Trying to do the exercise anyway even though it will be dangerously hot qualifies for this list of terrible team building exercises.

horrible, terrible team building exercises

Here's an example of the horror:

wow btb, I just googled it, and in India people exposed to the direct sun rays in the desert under the same temperature as here have died by the hundreds! I think our company Management are suffering from a common case of stubborness. I've seen people cause others to die just for being stubborn not to change their plans.

Janissy, your post is a blessing to me in my situation. I'll be re-reading it all the time for the next few days like a prayer. I had been unable to find anything about it in Google today. You know, the managers themselves (it's a US company) admit that they would never be able to pull this with US employees, they can only get away with it with us Middle-Easterns.

If you had more time you could find newspapers with relevant articles and leave them open on the tables they use in the canteen. Articles stating how people were prosecuted for forcing such activities, death from heat exhaustion, etc.

It may be a bit too obvious to send email circulars on the subject though??? But maybe not... even use FB? Or even the good old word of mouth rumour mill!



Anyway, plenty of fluids and is it salt tablets... or just isotonic drinks?

Oh, watching the news yesterday,I know its hyperbole but they said "its absolutely boiling here at 32 degrees Celsius", REALLY!! !

rarebit, they're very aware of the dangers, but this is probably a common case of bad management's decision caused by the web of politics, someone who just can't back down from the plans for some political reason and takes everyone down with them.

In the company I worked for before (which went bankrupt and closed while I was there), they forced employees to do karting competitions (back then it was mandatory in many companies in their field). A colleague of mine was declared brain dead as a consequence, a young girl with 2 babies at home. She miraculously recovered, only to be fired by the same company that forced her to compete in karting for being too often on sick leave due to the multiple brain surgeries she had to undergo.