OK, I confess: I am not a team player – at least, not in the sense that the expression is usually used around an office.
This admission is so burdened with nasty connotations that finding the courage to make it has taken most of my adult life. Nobody ever says so in as many words, but the implication is that something is wrong with you if you are not a team player.
In an office setting, not being a team player means that you are uncooperative, unwilling to make sacrifices for the sake of the company for which you work, and probably first in line to be fired. It suggests that something is deeply wrong with you, and that maybe you have other nasty habits as well.
In many ways, the usage reminds me of the admonition by a crowd to be a good sport. In both cases, the implication is that you should conform and do what others want to do, regardless of your own inclinations.
In other words, the threat of being called “not a team player” encourages you to be polite and do what is expected of you. Otherwise, you are letting people (or the company) down.
Such behavior may make daily life easier for a manager. If nothing else, people afraid of having a negative label applied to them can be coerced in endless hours of over-time. But, while I don’t go out of way to be unpleasant, personally I would rather eat sushi made from raw slugs that conform for no better reason than someone else’s convenience.
More importantly, from my observations the sort of behavior implied when the concept of a team player is raised is the exact opposite of what you want when you need to accomplish something.
When I was growing up, I did my share of team sports, mostly soccer and rugby. Perhaps, I was lucky, but, at the time, the pseudo-military atmosphere that prevails in football had no place in those sports. Nor could it; you can easily memorize a few moves from a standard position, but soccer and rugby both require a more active sense of smarts that can adjust to an ever-changing situation.
In such fast-moving games, the last thing you want is conformists. Instead, what you want to know is that the people on your team can think for themselves – that they will be in the position for you to pass the ball to them because they have anticipated what is about to happen on the field. You relied on your team mates’ competence, not their dedication to the team.
In my favorite sport, long distance running, this lesson was even more obvious. Sure, there were cross-country teams and points were tallied for each school at a track meet. At times, someone who was slower might even run interference to help a faster team member break away from the pack. But, mostly, you were alone with your own training and sense of strategy. If your team won, it was because those on it were prepared and alert.
As an adult, I find the same lesson in the free and open source software (FOSS) community. Operating systems like GNU/Linux or applications like Firefox, or Apache have not excelled because they were made in an organization of conformists. Instead, they have succeeded because their development model assumes the competence of those involved. For the most part, people coordinate their work with everyone else, then do it largely on their own and return it to the community for peer review. It is this system of individuals coordinating their separate work that is the secret of such projects’ successes.
A group of team players in the ordinary use of the term needs to work much harder to achieve the same level of excellence as such projects – assuming, that is, they can reach it at all. As for innovation, forget it. So-called team players simply aren’t geared for it. Nor are they likely to have the degree of personal responsibility and discipline needed to work in such a loosely-knit way.
When I have worked in offices that emphasize teamwork, I have always found that my efforts to achieve excellence swamped by the need to appear loyal and to swallow my opinions and interrupt my concentration with endless meetings. Team-players are skilled in jingoism and giving the appearance of getting work done, but the chances of them achieving anything beyond the bare specifications is minimal. When they do, you almost always find that the source of the excellence is someone on the fringes of the team who works on their own as much as possible.
If that is what being a team player means, then I, for one, want nothing to do with the label. To me, it is a code word for mediocrity. I achieve more personal satisfaction – and, in the end, help those around me more (including my employers) – if I work on my own with consultation as needed, and can trust those around me to do the same.
Off the Wall 
Spot on! I often laugh when I see all those adverts for high-powered jobs listing out required personal traits, which always seem to include being a “self-starter” and a good “team player”. Man, these things are mutually exclusive! Either you are an independent thinker and are a pain in the bum to work with or you toe the line and get on well with everyone. Both types of people are required in companies, recruiters just need to realise that some jobs require one type and some the other…
I really enjoyed your piece. I was sitting at working almost in tears thinking there must be something wrong with me because I had to admit I’m not a team player, nor do I care to be. I am an independent thinker and I refuse to conform to society’s standards or put a company’s needs and wants before my own. I think it’s called an entrepreneur.
This just seems so obvious to me. (I’m not a developer; I’m a writer. Similar wiring for independence, it seems.) It’s fine that other people function well on teams. I don’t understand the stigma against those of us who do not.
I know I am seriously late to this post, which I love! Yay! Someone finally said it. I have known this for most of my adult life, and every time I “attempt” at being a team player I fail. Its the simpleton, wide eyed acknowledgement and confirmation of superiors rantings of presumed intelligence, that I find so very very vomit inducing. Its great to know their are others out their, gives me courage!
Thank you. I fully accept that I’m not a team player and have no interest in being one in the corporate setting. It’s good to see that I’m not the only one.
Team players = mindless sheep.
After getting feedback about my not being a team player, my first instinct was denial; mainly because of the negative connotation associated with it in the work place. After finally processing this information, I have decided that its true, I don’t care to conform. And while I have to admit that my life in most worlkplaces would be easier if I could just happily do whatever, whenever for the team, I have to accept that its not who I am. I would probably resent my team if I did that. To try and change myself is a tall order that I am unlikely to be successful at. So I am seeking my own path, creating my own place in this universe. A place that supports my personality and gives me a chance to use this as a strength instead of labeling it as a weakness.
Having just been turned down for a much deserved promotion for “not being a team player” I can really related to this. The truth is I think for myself and get things done that others can’t because they don’t want to step outside the box. I cannot and will not change who I am. But this also means I’m stuck with no chance of moving up so I am trying to move on out. When I was asked to define teamwork I said ” a group of people working together towards a common goal.” I still think I do that just not in the conforming way I supposed to. Thank you for writing this piece.
Marie
In our company, teamwork is managerspeak for chronically understaffed.
Oh Marie, thank you so much for your post! After getting an eval that outlined in detail the fact that I produced twice the work of my colleagues, I was skewered with the “poor team player” card. I asked my boss if she would reduce my workload so I could spend time attending some training a on how to be a better team player, only to be told I was smart enough to figure this out on my own. huh???
Reblogged this on Work-Life Strategies & Solutions and commented:
“You’re like that stubborn mule who moves forward when you want her to back up and backs up when you want her to move forward.” This was a recent remark about my contrarian mindset by a long time friend who is one of the few privy to my deepest nature. Indeed, I’ve often dealt with social pressure to go along with a group by digging in my heels and doing the opposite of what’s desired just because I have an extremely acute hate for social pressure. I’ve managed to stifle this part of myself at work so successfully that I can’t think of anyone who would suspect that I’m not the “cooperative team player” type. Due to the social undesirability issue, it takes guts to admit this as bloggers like Bruce Byfield noted. However, as his blog post explains, when you dig deep and think about how weaknesses are also strengths it becomes evident that there really is an appropriate place, a role, for each and every person to play in the world of work… even if you’re not a cooperative team player!
I love it. I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been trained to lie during interviews whenever the subject of whether or not I am a team player was brought up, because as you said admitting that I am not brings all sorts of negative connotations. I could be courageous and tell every potential employer that and not have a job or money or I can lie and have a job. This article is WELL DONE!
Where I work ‘team player’ means I have to take up the slack for less productive colleagues for nothing. Not even an ‘atta girl’. Much less any extra pay ! Sounds like creeping Communism to me ! 🙂
My team leader told me in front of our boss that I was not a team player. Being the polite employee, I did not tell him, “You are not a team leader.” I just smiled at him and thought, “Your days are numbered. Either I will resign or you will resign.” He resigned five months later.
A boxer that trains with the champ in the ring is a pulocka. I refuse to be. I went into business for myself at age 24 and retired at age 47. I am and will not be a team player. I sure used team players…