Inside a Corporate Retreat That Went Very Badly Wrong

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/workplace/corporate-retreat-gone-wrong-07754741

by dsr12 • 4 months ago

44 10 4 months ago

My favorite part of this whole thing is that the only people interviewed - bar one engineer who gets one quote - are the CEO, the CPO, a Head of Business Dev, and a senior product manager.

I want to hear from the people crawling on the beach who weren't that high up in the company, and who presumably didn't love Survivor as much as Keith did.

Also, to all the younger people working today: you can, in fact, turn down a trip to Honduras that sounds like an obviously stupid fucking idea, even if your manager and teammates are pressuring you.

nradov• 4 months ago

I don't know about the eating bugs part but getting paid to exercise on the beach honestly sounds awesome to me.

orian• 4 months ago

Drinking late at office also sounds awesome, but somewhat many people don’t like it.

pavel_lishin2• 4 months ago

Sure, except for the sand fleas, and the fact that the Navy Seal instructor expected way too much of them, and that two planeloads of people were stranded on an island, and the porcupine falling into a shower, and the e. coli, etc., etc., etc.

johnbarron• 4 months ago

At my Corporate retreat, in the 90s, at the peak of Internet bubble, the CEO left the Corporate Credit card at the reception of Prague best brothel...and told the manager to charge it as much as needed, for services provided to his entourage...less risky...

The 90s were wild. Corporate is too serious now. This CEO went on to run four other well known companies, and is very much still in business...

vivzkestrel• 4 months ago

yea because easily offended people are gonna file like 10 lawsuits the next day if you try doing this now

pseudohadamard• 4 months ago

This was Prague, not the US. The only issue I can see is that he should have given people the alternative option of the Strahov Brewery alongside the brothel.

iainctduncan• 4 months ago

And if you want a fantastic read that is both a gripping mystery and so-on-point satire of startup culture, Ruth Ware's "One By One" is fucking awesome. It's an homage to the Agatha Christie novel, but at a startup's corporate retreat.

pjmlp• 4 months ago

The unwanted activities, even without the way this one badly turned out to be, is the main reason I avoid them as much as I can.

I don't want to bound being tied to random people carrying eggs without breaking them from point to point, being tied down from the feet and get something hidden in a mount of flour, obstacules race, getting out of an escape room,....

Real examples from past experiences that I failed to avoid.

Inside a Corporate Retreat That Went Very Badly Wrong

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