Activities for Old People

Lucky me, I'm the training coordinator for an office of around 50 people. One of my tasks is to plan the agenda for a staff picnic at a local park, and I have to come up with some "team-building" activities for the afternoon. Here are my obstacles:

• In the past, we've done sports (volleyball, baseball, etc.), but this year our new manager has banned any physical activity, for fear of someone getting injured.

• The office is made up mostly of middle-aged auditors, who lack a sense of humor.

• Everyone is cheap, so I can't really spend any money on the activity.

Trivia is the only thing I can come up with, as I've heard other offices have done a variation of Jeopardy, but that would mean I'd have to write questions. I'm open for any ideas, no matter how wacky.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I should mention that I work for the federal government, so alcohol is out. The poker idea is interesting, though I'll have to research whether gambling, even if we're not playing for money, is allowed.

How ya doing, buddy?

We're having a picnic, because it's an office tradition. Like I said, the new manager is an idiot, so he's having a picnic, but he's banning any kind of physical activity, and he scheduled the picnic after school starts so that no one can bring their kids.

Karaoke would be fun, except there's no electricity for the machine. The Texas Hold 'em is out because the rules on gambling are sort of gray, and my boss is paranoid about staying within the rules.

I had a conversation with him about activities this week. His idea of a fun team-building activity was to put people on teams and give them a work-related problem to solve. Woo, fun! As it looks right now, I'm going to find someone with Trivial Pursuit cards, and do some sort of trivia game. It looks like that's the only thing that will fit into his very narrow definition.

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