A friend of mine is working in a somewhat larger, remotely working team and they have a retreat once or twice a year. It's usually a holiday destination, a few

A friend of mine is working in a somewhat larger, remotely working team and they have a retreat once or twice a year. It's usually a holiday destination, a few days (like the work week) and it looks quite fun. It's one of the few times where everyone can see each other and it's seems to do it's job well as a team-building exercise, and I think it's largely because it's bottom up. It's up to the engineers what they want to do. It's a holiday together, somewhat boozy with different social activities where not everyone is forced to participate (some might need something physical in between and others are not really in shape to participate). Which might be the secret to 'mandatory fun' in the office. Maybe just ask what they would like, listen a bit and gather feedback what worked and what not, instead of just booking some random team-building offering. Top-down, mandatory fun (with a focus on mandatory) is just not going to work.