Team Day at Telecom (12th December 2007)

This is my 3rd week at Telecom and so far, it has been interesting. Though I’m not 100% sure what my role entails (I think any new person in any job feels the same as I do) and the jargon they use (I thought I landed in Jupiter – are you guys speaking in English??!), I’m gradually picking up on things and hope to be a productive member of the team soon. My colleagues are very nice and have a good sense of humour (we need that in this high-stress environment!).

Okay, maybe I’ll take back when I said my colleagues were very nice – some of them tried to 'drown' me in a pool today!!! It was our department’s team day and most of the permanent staff from my unit attended the day long event at TSB Arena from 8.45 this morning. The morning was mostly speeches while the afternoon part was a team building activity hosted by local celebrity Mike Havoc. There were 20 teams, each given the same set of materials (corrugated cardboard, penknife, bubble wrap, lots of packing tape, sticks, paper, etc.) and 3 hours to build a boat that 1 team member had to row on in a race against time. I had Jeremy and Sam on my team (team members were randomly grouped) – I knew those guys wouldn’t let me off the hook even when I told them I have a cold! Poor me became ‘victim’ to test out the boat they will be building…oh dear!!!

Peter was our team leader (well, he’s got a degree in boat building) and we were split into 2 smaller groups: the structural team and the creative team. The creative team dressed me up as a mermaid and Peter gave me a crash course on kayaking. OH MY GOD!!!! What have I gotten myself into???!!! Andrew (my boss) didn’t tell me this was part of my induction! It was such a fun day and so many creative boats and brave sailors – I’m so glad I didn’t sink on the Aquamarine (our boat name)! We didn’t expect the boat to be so buoyant – I was pretty much paddling at a 45 degree angle all the way!! Though we didn’t make the fastest boat (we completed the race in 54 seconds; the fastest was 19 seconds), we did win the most creative title :) Great team work, team! Photos taken of the amazing boat race: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8070917@N05/sets/72157603682411158/detail/