AmiSight 6/18: The Offsite We Didn’t Expect

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 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. Head over to my 21Hats column to continue reading.