Business travel often conjures up images of lonely, sad business hotel rooms, but these days many companies are trying to revitalize the image of vacation destinations with poolside parties, camping getaways and luxury rentals. Let’s face it, though – these getaways tend to make more tea than “teamwork.” Stuck in a vacation rental with unlimited free drinks, your work best friends, your water cooler nemesis, and human resources? What could possibly go wrong?
That’s the premise for “Very Bad Company,” a new novel about a business retreat turned crime scene by BDG Chief Content Officer Emma Rosenblum . Fashion tech startup Aurora brought together the company's top employees for an exclusive retreat in Miami, and this year, Aurora's newest hire, Caitlin Levy, will join the team as head of events. When a top executive goes missing on the first night, Caitlin and her colleagues must decide whether to continue with team-building exercises and fancy dinners, or derail the company's future.
Here, 10 women share some of their best memories from company-sponsored trips: the salacious, the spooky and the surprising.
Start doing business
"I used company money to stay in this really nice hotel and spontaneously invited the guy I'd been dating. With the promise of sex in a five-star hotel room, he dropped everything and booked a flight. We spent the whole week Both were having sex and at one point he had to talk on a conference call while he was on the way to the airport. He had asked me to change flights so we could sit next to each other so I was on the plane. I cried next to him for three hours.” — Vanessa, 30.
"I went on a glamping trip to an island for work and the event staff had to stay the night with us as the ferries stopped running at six. I ended up getting drunk and having sex with a hot producer in his tent Hooked up. The next day, everyone was gossiping about whether the other girls on the trip had slept with the photographer. They didn’t know I was the one who actually had sex.” —Jessica , 28.
"I looked for a tour guide on Bumble, preferably one that offered benefits. I was matched with six men just by posting some sexy selfies and saying I was in town for the weekend. I let them promote themselves, Then picked the one with the best jokes. He showed me the coolest places in the city and I took him back to my hotel and when we kissed he said he didn't have a condom. Thought, 'Okay, no then. ' He suggested we go to his house (medium crust, I've seen worse), we had sex, and he asked me to stay for that. Sleeping on dark blue men’s sheets at the expense of a free hotel, so I took an Uber and slept until 1pm” —Ali, 29
"I interned at a consulting firm for two summers, and I flew to their training facility both years. There was a really cute guy there, and I was like, 'Let's hang out.' ” We were hanging around, and at night, I thought, “You should come to my room.” "Mind you, everyone in this hotel is cooperating with us and there are cameras everywhere. He said, 'You know I have a girlfriend, right?' "I was so stupid and so fucking horny that I said, 'I don't care. You care?' We ended up having sex, but his cock was so big that it took us a long time to It goes in.” —Luna, 20.
Corporate chaos
"The company took us to a gorgeous mansion in Mexico. We were jet lagged, but our CEO hired a mariachi band to perform, so we had to stay. He tried to get employees to dance with him, Grabbing people's hands and spinning them around, kind of like Hokey Pokey with a lot of limbs dancing around, but one guy was into it, but the rest of us were standing by the wall trying to look excited while he was circling. ” —Jolene, 22
Very bad corporate bookstore
"After my colleague and I went to Stockholm for work, we went to Amsterdam together. I thought we were going for an idyllic bike ride, but he ended up dragging me on a 26-mile tandem ride. We had to leave the bikes alone Thrown over the fence because he refused to take seriously a Dutch sign that said they were under construction. We were stuck on the beach surrounded by tractors, pushing our heavy bikes on the sand for a good 45 minutes and at one point a herd of cows caused us damage. There was a traffic jam. The thing is, we didn’t have a fight the entire time and it really improved our teamwork.” —Melissa, 26
meeting from hell
"I had a counseling client who knew how to chill out. On the last night of the trip, we got a little drunk at a boozy mini-golf course. She invited us back to her place. She said, 'I do birth charts. and tarot readings. "I asked her if she would be mine, and she did. She said, 'I saw you die alone. You never met anyone. That's what you wanted.'" - Piper, 26
"On my first business trip, I took a shower before meeting a colleague. As I was getting ready, the mirror started to fog up and I saw writing on it. It was backwards but from right to left It said "Murder, get out." I was naked and alone, thinking, 'Is this real? Is this a big joke?' The front desk lady didn’t ask me any questions and just offered to give me a new room.” —Rey , 22.
"We were put up in a very old hotel. On the first day, I felt like someone was with me in my room. I felt a little uncomfortable and had a restless sleep. When I woke up, I was freezing , cold, fever, runny nose. I tried to stick to my morning routine, but eventually made it back to my room. Then, in the middle of my nap, I felt something clawing at my bedspread. It felt like something was grabbing at the sheets with its hands. It was completely dark and the tugging kept going. I felt the bed start to shake. I opened my mouth to scream, and then I woke up on the plane. Relayed to my colleague, she told me that she felt a similar weird feeling in her room, right below mine, and my illness completely disappeared as soon as we landed.” — H., 25
The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
