[znq]

Hey, I'm one of the co-founders who runs Mobile Jazz.

To answer your questions:

1) We actually wanted to experience a new culture and also have some kind of adventure. We're already doing things in Spain, so we just wanted to try out something new and see how it works :-)

2) This was only a 2 month experiment, but our whole company is set up for remote work. So some of us continuously travel and work from different places. Myself I've been living in a camper van for a year now (blog post pending ;-)), but this was the first experiment where we actually rented two houses offshore and moved a bunch of people there.

Since then we also had another experiment. We spent some time in the Austrian Alps for skiing. We'll write about it soon.

And the next thing we want to do is actually in Spain (in the mountains) and then we're planning to go to Mauritius for a month or so.

[bart42_0]

Ok, clear.

It can be a great way to run project in a lovely pressure cooker. Everybody 7days per week involved/committed without the distraction of homely nuisances.

I'm very interested in your camper-van-blogpost

And Mauritius is great!

[normloman]

Do you realize how evil that could sound? "I can force everyone to work 7 days per week by moving them to an island, miles away from their friends and family."

If you need people to work 7 days per week, that's a problem. Hire more people, or set longer deadlines. Emergencies happen, but working late for a whole week or more is a systemic, productivity and morale sapping flaw.

But you're right. Mauritius is great!

[znq]

In our specific case in Thailand we never worked more than the usual 8 hours a day and on the weekends we organized trips together. So our goal was not to have people put together so that they work more, but rather have a good time and adventure together.

[bart42_0]

No, you can't force. But you can put a team close together, they don't have to work more than 8hrs/day. But if they meet on weekends, on trips, bbq's, there wil be shoptalk. That is good for the project. In most cases. I used to work for an 'offshore pipeline desig company' hard work, drinks on friday evening, family BBQ on Saturday. Lots of fun, and everybody was ALWAYS talking about kids, dogs and work.

[normloman]

I don't see anything wrong with team events, as long as they are optional. People should be encouraged to have interests outside of work. It promotes a healthy work/life balance, and discourages groupthink. The occasional team building event can be great for morale, but be respectful of people's obligations.

Your original post talked about relocating so team members could spend 7 days a week committed to the project. That goes far beyond a weekend BBQ.

[scalesolved]

When you say mountains I hope you mean sierra de gredos! :)