It's that time of the year again: Onedot at the bi-yearly company offsite in the Swiss mountains! While the night owls in the team are still dozing at departure of the train, the early birds already kick off interesting conversations over coffee and croissants, looking forward to a couple of intense days with lots of possibilities to discuss company strategy, operational improvements, and last but not least, getting to know all the Onedot team members in a more informal context. Working remotely for most part of the year makes meeting your fellow team members somewhere in the offline world even more important.
After almost three hours of train ride with two changes of connections, we take the short funicular railway and arrive at the magical historic site of Schatzalp situated above of Davos, where early mountain tourism, world literature and Hollywood movies come together in one place. Original built as a sanatorium in 1899, the Schatzalp hotel saw much of history already, from the first tuberculosis patients during world war times to illustrious guests like famous German author Thomas Mann with his Magic Mountain novel or Sir Author Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame, and more recently, the shooting of Hollywood movie Youth starring Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel and Rachel Weisz.
After settling in and enjoying the first delicious snacks offered by the hotel team, we start our first sessions where we revisit company strategy, discuss current focus and look back at our achievements. Soon, we split up into teams and tackled different aspects, from sales and marketing to operations, delivery and product engineering.
During the breaks from intense discussions, debates and short presentations, we enjoy the warm mountain sun and the beautiful scenery of the impressive mountains around the Davos valley. If you look really closely, you can even see the remote peeks of the Engadin mountains and the neighboring Austrian mountain ranges.
A company offsite would not be whole without some fun events. Lucky for us, we can test-drive the summer toboggan run a few times, enjoying the speed and the fresh mountain air. After all the discussions about speeding up our company processes, achieving some real speed on the run is perceived as a welcome diversion of the day.
One of the most important aspect of a company offsite are the conversations with all the team members, whether they just started a few weeks ago or have been with us almost since the beginning, whether you've been working with them on a daily basis, or you just talked to them a few times until now. With the new remote work life inflicted upon us these days, having a drink with your fellow team members on the porch of our hotel can't be valued enough. Thankfully, Onedot has been promoting flexible working models since the very early days, so the change has not been perceived as incisive as initially thought.
Soon, time comes to take out our fine attire and proceed to the dining room where we enjoy a delicious four-course dinner in historic settings. Despite the restrictions of seating regulations, we have a great time and enjoy good conversations with good laughter. A visit to the bar and a few well-prepared drinks and treasures from the hotel cellars complete this successful day.
Early next morning, history repeats itself: The early birds are already exercising outside on the lawn, running on some mountain trails or enjoying quiet time for reading; the night owls are still processing the repercussions of last night and are struggling to get up and be ready for the morning sessions. During these sessions, all the insights and ideas generated earlier the day before are discussed and refined in plenum. Once again, it's amazing to see what can happen when a great team plays in concert. With lots of open items to investigate or address, we finish the business part of our company offsite and prepare for a nice hike to the mountains.
Despite the imminent thunderstorm announced by the whether forecast, we make it safely to the top of the Strela mountain pass where we stay, recover from the steep ascent, and enjoy the view to the Davos valley and the close Schanfigg valley with another famous maintain village called Arosa.
Naturally, a steep ascent usually asks for a just as steep descent. We are challenging our quads to the maximum and make it back to the funicular railway that takes us back to the village of Davos, right in time before the rain clouds unleashed their first rain drops. Still, some of us get the full treatment and end up soaking wet. Despite that, we enjoy the ride home together and are all looking forward to the weekend to recover. Everyone of us knows: the real work begins after the company offsite. To next week!
