Trust fall game: catch your team, not your manager
This trust fall game is set at the offsite's 2 pm team-building session. Your coworkers fall off the mezzanine one by one and trust you to catch them. Managers fall too, and nobody said you had to catch those.
Catch the team. Step away from management.
On shift
The usual offsite. Five managers and the CEO.
Done for todayToday's round done
- Your bestBest
- Next round
The usual offsite. Five managers and the CEO.
Today's round Caught 0 Dropped 0 Bosses caught 0 Points 0
Paused
You're on a break. The clock waits until you press Resume.
← → run, or click where to stand.
Hold an arrow, or tap where to stand.
Time card
- Meeting or Email , Not punched yet
- Boss Key , Not punched yet
- Reorg , Not punched yet
- Seen and Gone , Not punched yet
- You're on Mute , Not punched yet
- Work memes , Not punched yet
- Pizza Party , Not punched yet
- Expense Report , Not punched yet
- Self-Review , Not punched yet
- Close the Door , Not punched yet
- Trust Fall , Not punched yet
- Jargon quiz , Not punched yet
- Real or fake , Not punched yet
- The Application , Not punched yet
- Reply game , Not punched yet
The next shift starts at midnight.
How to play Trust Fall
Your coworkers walk out onto the mezzanine and fall with their arms crossed. A shadow on the carpet shows where to stand to catch each one.
To run, hold an arrow key or one of the arrow buttons under the room. Tapping, clicking or dragging on the room moves you too. You want every coworker in your arms and every boss on the carpet.
Step away from management
Managers in a navy suit and red tie fall too. Their shadow has a dashed ring around it, drawn in red pen. Step out of the ring before they reach your arms.
A close dodge is when you’re under a falling boss and step out in time. A boss who lands on the carpet gets up fine, every time.
Once a session the CEO jumps in a gold tie and floats down on a golden parachute, swaying from side to side.
Good to know
- A session runs 60 seconds with 30 coworkers, five managers and the CEO.
- Interns bounce once, so you catch them twice. Some coworkers flail and drift sideways.
- The session speeds up as it goes. From halfway, some people fall in pairs, a third of a second apart.
- Some days change the session. When the whole C-suite comes, ten managers fall. On Slippery carpet days, you’re a lot slower to get going and a lot slower to stop.
- The Take your time switch slows every fall to half speed. You still run at full speed. Pause, or the P key, holds everyone in mid-air.
How Trust Fall scores
Each catch scores points, and a streak of catches multiplies them. Dropping a coworker or catching a boss knocks the streak down a step.
| What you do | Points |
|---|---|
| Catch a coworker | 10 |
| Five catches in a row | Every catch doubled |
| Ten catches in a row | Every catch tripled |
| Drop a coworker | 0 |
| Catch a manager | 50 off |
| Catch the CEO | 100 off |
| Close dodge on a manager | 10, times the streak’s multiplier |
| Close dodge on the CEO | 30, times the streak’s multiplier |
The best possible score is 1,130. That takes every coworker caught without a drop, and every boss a close dodge at the top multiplier.
Your grade starts as the share of coworkers you caught. Each manager in your arms takes a tenth off it, and catching the CEO takes off a quarter.
Daily and solo rounds
Today’s offsite is the same for everyone. The same people fall from the same spots at the same moments. The Play solo button gives you a new session every time.
The trust fall at work
What a trust fall is
In a trust fall, you fold your arms and fall. You’re trusting the group to catch you. Falls from somewhere high, like a stage or a stool, have ended in injuries when the catchers missed. Some were head injuries.
Why offices stopped doing them
Trust falls went out of fashion from around the mid-2010s, mostly over liability. If the catchers drop someone, the legal risk lands on the company.
Team-building is the least liked work social in Britain.
| British employees in 2025 who | Share |
|---|---|
| Picked team-building as one of their least favorite work social activities | 31% |
| Don’t like any social activity with coworkers | 19% |
Getting out of it
At the offsite, offer to take the team photo. Whoever fits everyone in the shot never joins the line. Or ask to go last. If the session runs long, it may break for coffee before it reaches you.
You can also ask the organizer, in private, who’s covered if someone gets dropped. That’s the liability question, and nobody running a trust fall wants it asked in front of the room.
If you’d rather skip the whole offsite, our excuses to get out of work rate each reason by how many questions it invites.
Questions about trust falls
Is there a trust fall game online?
This one. For 60 seconds your coworkers fall off an offsite mezzanine, and you run underneath to catch them. Catching a manager costs you points.
What is a trust fall?
A team exercise where one person folds their arms and falls, trusting the group to catch them. From a raised spot, a missed catch can mean a head injury.
Do trust falls actually build trust?
Not for long. Inside the session, maybe, but there's little evidence that the trust carries over into day-to-day work. It's usually gone by the first reply-all.
Why did companies stop doing trust falls?
Liability. The exercise started falling out of favor around the mid-2010s. A coworker who gets dropped is a legal risk.
How do you play the trust fall game?
Run under each falling coworker and catch them, with the arrow keys, the arrow buttons or a tap on the room. When a manager falls, step out of the red dashed ring, since one in your arms costs 50 points. Five catches in a row double every catch.
Where did the trust fall come from?
School adventure programs used it as a group trust exercise by the 1980s. A 1984 guide has a student fall backward off a stump or platform, 6 feet high at most, into at least 10 to 12 catchers in two lines. It also warns against trying one with friends after a couple of beers.