8 ms·
Interesting idea. Every two months seems like it could be prohibitively expensive, though, depending on the org. My company has a yearly event that's mandatory
by mrtranscendence 5y ago
Interesting idea. Every two months seems like it could be prohibitively expensive, though, depending on the org. My company has a yearly event that's mandatory for every employee throughout the country, and a common complaint is just how much it costs to put on. Granted, you could make it cheaper by getting rid of the c-list celebrity MC and free drinks, but renting a space for 1500 people, paying for travel, getting hotel rooms, etc, is all costly.
It's been all virtual for the past two years, and I genuinely wonder how much they've saved that way. It's also much more bearable for this introvert ... I despise that stupid event and resent having to attend. :P
- fernandotakai 5y agoi worked at company that is remote first and they did a company retreat every year (as well as team-focused retreats, like engineering, support, C-level). it was a blast -- you got a week of "free" travel w/ your SO (because it was just once a year, they paid for your SO to come with you). i loved it, because it was a time to get together, have some drinks, chitchat and do some super productive work.
- mrtranscendence 5y agoIf it was a week long, in a desirable location, and I could take my fiancee, I'd be all for it. But it's 1.5 days, no SOs, and held in a casino in the ass end of bumfuck Indiana. And forget about working -- it's centered around a team-building exercise with people from other parts of the company you probably don't know and will never talk to again.
- andrewnicolalde 5y agoThese sound like two different sorts of trips, and two very different sorts of companies.
- dvtrn 5y agoI understand the “why” of team building, but the “what” or “how” the team-building is done often handled in such a hackneyed top-down way that I often wonder “if you just brought the team together, gave them options on ways to spend their time together, would they otherwise choose to do the same activities the managers designed for the event”? That’s more rhetorical than anything and is a roundabout way of saying: most organized team building events are just…boring. It’s also just a preference though: getting together and just hanging out without the pressure to talk shop or participate in some kind of coordinated, planned and overly-orchestrated activity is just as engaging for me as “escape rooms” or “games” or other “activities”.
- mrtranscendence 5y agoYeah, some alternative scenario where we're given time to get to know folks at our own pace would be nicer. Like, here's some drinks, here are some board games, mingle, maybe talk about work, maybe not, make some connections. Instead we're under pressure to do some silly game that has only the faintest connection to anything the company does or stands for. Maybe I'm just too bitter. Maybe if I stayed for the afterparty I'd get the kind of interaction I want. But late night carousing isn't my kind of thing generally.
- iKidA 5y agolol was the company 84.51/dunnhumby
- mrtranscendence 5y agoI will neither confirm nor deny that speculation. ;)
- throwaway889900 5y agoI imagine OP is talking about a significantly smaller company than 1500 people.
- jedberg 5y agoThe cost of the travel is no more than the cost of an office, which they don't have. They basically shift the office budget to the travel budget.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]