Matt Labash’s Weekly Standard cover story on the “infantilization of corporate America” is well worth a read. In my past life before political journalism, I saw some of these trends firsthand. The phrase “team building” still causes heart palpitations.
Not every company that uses these practices is quite so pathetic. I worked for several years at a marketing/tech company (I was hired during the dot-com boom) and some of the things we did were actually fun: well lubricated company parties, drinking games in the conference rooms, department-wide outings. But then again, I was in my 20s, so what wasn’t to like? It was college with a paycheck.
UPDATE: A while back, I wrote about my IT guy experience here.
