The Offsite We Didn’t Expect

With multiple employees working remotely, we knew it was important to get together. We just didn’t know how important.

As I’ve written before, we’ve become an increasingly virtual company. Our team is spread across the United States, and now includes employees in the Philippines (hired in collaboration with Doxa Talent). There are many advantages to this model, but it also presents challenges. Building culture is harder when most interactions happen through computer screens. That’s why we get together twice a year — to learn, collaborate, and have some fun. These gatherings matter because relationships matter. People work harder when they’re working with people they know and care about.

This year’s offsite in Philadelphia turned out to be different from any we’ve had before. For the first time, we brought one of our team members from the Philippines to join us in person. She has been with us for two years, but until last week she had known most of us only through Zoom meetings and WhatsApp messages.

When she arrived, I drove to the airport to pick her up. It didn’t seem like a big deal to me — she had just spent 26 hours traveling halfway around the world to be with us. She couldn’t believe I’d come to get her. I couldn’t believe how far she’d traveled. The gratitude she expressed was almost hard to comprehend. She thanked me over and over for something that felt completely natural. One of our core values is to treat our customers the way we would want to be treated. I’ve always believed that same principle applies to our employees.

That was just the beginning. She arrived with gifts for every member of our team — not tokens, but things she had clearly chosen with care. And for each person, she’d prepared a handwritten card with a personal note. Before the trip, she had taken the time to think about every single colleague.

Throughout the week, her excitement never faded. We took a walking tour of Philadelphia, and she soaked up every bit of history. Places we barely notice anymore became fascinating through her eyes. She reminded us that the city we often take for granted is actually pretty remarkable. On Sunday, several team members took her to a Phillies game. She could hardly believe it — sitting in a Major League Baseball stadium with coworkers who had become friends wasn’t something she ever expected to experience.

As the week went on, something became clear. We thought we were giving her a gift. We thought we were being generous by bringing her to America, by giving her the chance to meet her colleagues in person. In reality, she gave us something bigger. Her enthusiasm was genuine and infectious. People had conversations that might never have happened otherwise. By the end of the week, we weren’t just a group of coworkers who had attended an offsite. We were a closer team.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about culture. Last week reminded me that it doesn’t come from values hung on a wall. It comes from people actually caring about each other — and then doing something about it. We thought we were giving one employee an experience she would never forget. It turns out she was the one who gave the gift.