In sports, being a team player would mean something like you don't play football as if its all a one man show. But at work isn't this kind of independence a desirable thing? Like salespeople who have to carry their own weight at all times? At this point, looking at all these job ads is giving me the impression that what it really means is "submissive and obedient".
Interestingly, I've been reading the book "Quiet" by Susan Cain recently, and I do find her explanation on how traits like "team player" and communication/collaboration became so engrained in the corporate world - even in jobs and settings where such social interactions aren't essential - quite plausible. She calls this as an obsession with the "extraversion ideal", and how this could become a problem in the working world.
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