"It'll be fun" or The Ugly Truth about Corporate Kickball

 If you ever work for a larger company during your career, chances are that someone at the office or in your friend group will suggest forming a kickball team.

“It’ll be fun!” they say. “We’ll just hang out, get some fresh air, nothing too serious.”

And they’re right. At first.
There are amusing team names (our lawyer friends once formed a team named The Bad News Barristers), Matching t-shirts, Coolers full of LaCroix and beer and, most importantly, snacks.
You run (or mostly jog). You laugh. You forget how bad you are at catching fly balls.

But then...
The game gets close. Someone slides unnecessarily.
Someone else starts yelling about “tighter infield strategy” like this is the 9th inning of Game 7 of the World Series and not a Tuesday night in July.

Suddenly, your "friendly" kickball league is revealing something deeper:

Some People Play for Fun. Some Play to Win. And Some… Should Maybe Sit Out a Few Innings.

Let me admit something up front:
I avoid most competitive situations. Not because I’m not competitive. But because I am.
Deeply. Dangerously.

If a game matters even a little, some version of me shows up that’s… intense. Focused. Scary, even, in a highly strategic way that’s not really welcome in casual kickball circles.

Like, I’m not going to elbow a toddler to win at Uno, but I'm not going to just let the kid win either.  My (currently) seven nieces and nephews have humbled me enough in Smash Brothers to keep me honest (damn their youthful reflexes and hand eye coordination).  But not long ago, they made the mistake of taking me on in Mario Kart and Wii Sports.  It wasn't pretty . . . for them.

It’s not that competition is bad. It’s that for some of us, the line between “fun” and “must conquer all” is paper thin.

How to Compete Without Turning Into a Cartoon Villain

If you’re like me and you feel the blood pressure rise as soon as someone says “Let’s keep score,” here are a few ways to stay grounded:

• Set micro-goals. “Encourage three teammates” is a lot healthier than “Destroy Kevin.”

• Focus on the weird stuff. “I'm going to catch with one hand while holding a Capri Sun” is a great way to stay humble.

• Be the hype-person. If you can’t turn off the intensity, at least redirect it into cheers, snacks, or motivational jingles.

Basically: use your competitive energy to lift people up instead of crushing their souls.

Kickball Is a Culture Test in Disguise

Here’s the secret no one tells you: adult rec sports are one of the best ways to find out what people are actually like under pressure.

The chill guy from accounting? Suddenly screaming at the ref over a bad call.
The sweet, soft-spoken intern? Turns out she has a cannon for a leg and no remorse.
The overly intense team captain? Treating the whole thing like an ESPN documentary.

Sometimes, this stuff is funny and harmless. Other times? Not so much.

Because if someone’s acting like a jerk on the field, odds are they’re doing something similar in meetings or group projects. Sports just pull the curtain back a little faster.

And yeah, every now and then, you find out someone just doesn’t fit the group dynamic. Maybe they’re too aggressive. Maybe they don’t know how to lose. Maybe they treat “fun” like a thing that happens to other people.  I once ended a friendship over Halo, of all things.

Playing together gives you the space to notice it early and deal with it in a way that’s lower-stakes than a quarterly review or a team meltdown.

Why We Still Show Up

Despite all of this… I am learning to enjoy light competition. Not because I’m always good at it. Definitely not because I’m chill. But because there’s something magic about adults giving themselves permission to run around and act like kids again.

The silliness. The teamwork. The fact that half of us forget the rules and the other half are trying to build a spreadsheet of team stats.

It’s absurd. It’s messy.
And it’s exactly the kind of play we need more of.