My guess is it sounds like a great idea in the board room. Some people call it a retreat, a sales meeting, leadership seminars – I’ve even heard it called a “forward”. The bottom line is the powers that be decided to have a mandatory destination gathering on President’s Day Weekend. The C-Suite probably thinks it’s a great idea, “they can have vacation and we can get work done at the same time”.
The truth is these trips are usually a moral killer and an unnecessary expense that management can’t see with their blinders on.
I had my first experience with this as a rookie recruiter. The firm I was working for thought it was ingenious to bring everyone to Chicago on President’s Day weekend back in 2005. I still remember how pissed I was that I had to be away from home for Valentine’s Day, and my Birthday back to back. Never mind it was winter in Chicago.
This past Presidents’ Day a company was hosting its sales meetings at the hotel I was staying at in Orlando, FL. These poor people had been there since Wednesday and weren’t going home until Tuesday after Presidents Day. This was not a happy group. Watching them all try to get a few minutes of sun on lounge chairs in business casual attire as I sipped a Mojito, and swam in the pool, seemed like salt in the wound. I felt their pain – and it inspired this article.
Here are some reasons why organizations should NEVER have these types of meetings on Presidents’ Day or any other holiday weekend.
- It costs more! Do you know how inflated airline tickets and hotel rooms are for Presidents’ Day week? Especially in warm destinations like Orlando? The same flight that usually costs $200-$300 runs around $500-$800 during that period. Hotel rooms for $279 quickly become $399 hotel rooms. Ask your CFO, this is just an unnecessary premium business expense.
- NO, it’s not cool for your employees to bring their families on these trips for a savings! Parent’s actually want to spend time with their kids – not send their spouse off with them to the amusement parks and pools while they get spoon fed Kool-Aid and next year’s sales goals.
- Its intrusive and pompous. National Holidays belong to your employees, not you. When you plan these trips, you intrude on THEIR time. You steal THEIR time from friends and families. How dare you assume they prefer to be with you that week. Maybe they had home repairs to do, or parents they haven’t seen in a long time. Whatever it is you have taken that opportunity from them.
- The open bar, endless buffet, and live DJ don’t make it better either. They just numb the pain.
Don’t believe me? Try conducting an anonymous poll of your employees and see what they think. I’ll be at the pool bar, look for the guy with the pitcher of Mojito’s.
Vincent Scaramuzzo is the President of Ed-Exec, Inc. A leading Education Executive Search Firm. He is also a contributing author to various education publications. As a specialist in the education field for over a decade, Scaramuzzo works nationally. He can be contacted at vincent@ed-exec.com 860-781-7641.