Remote work unbundled the office. The desk, the meetings, the hallway chats, the culture: they all went their separate ways. In this episode, Jessica Malnik strings together conversations with past guests to trace where each piece landed, and why retreats picked up so much of what the office dropped.
If you want to understand what remote work did to office culture, start here.
Related assets
- jessicamalnik.com/resources/remote-work-retreat-industry
- github.com/jessicamalnik/remote-work-retreat-industry
Episodes we revisit:
- Stella Garber. Offsites build trust and psychological safety. Remote does not mean rejecting face time. Full episode here.
- William Chia. Remote versus in-person is a false dichotomy. Effective remote work can still require face-to-face time. Full episode here.
- Meryl Johnston. Remote-first teams can value face-to-face relationships. Retreat organizers should handle logistics while leaders shape goals and culture. Full episode here.
- Jared Kleinert. Offsites can build culture or become a box-checking perk. Gathering design should start with goals, environment, facilitation, and invitees. Full episode here.
- Jesse Schoberg. The value of gathering comes from the extra moments around work and the shift in headspace that a different physical context creates. Full episode here.
- Branca Ballot. Small in-person groups can gather around one difficult customer problem for deeper exploration than digital settings allow. Full episode here.
- Scott Brills. Prospective retreat operators should run the trip first with forgiving participants before selling it to strangers. Full episode here.
- Amar Ghose. Off-topic water-cooler exchanges and team retreats support informal connection that remote work strips away. Full episode here.
- Barrett Brooks. Creating space and rest helps people return to distributed work without feeling overwhelmed. Full episode here.
- John Yarbrough. Remote work created time for walks, cooking, and more intentional self-care. Full episode here.
We hope you enjoy it!
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