A Colorado team retreat went catastrophically wrong when coworkers left one hiker alone on a mountain, removed trail markers, and didn't report him missing for hours. He spent the night lost in a storm before rescue, exposing how badly team-building can backfire.
There was a team of 15 coworkers in Colorado who went for a team retreat and did a hike. They left one of the teammates to finish the summit push alone. So a bunch of them got to the top and were starting their descent. Another one had not yet made it to the top, and he was still heading up. And they kind of continued down the mountain— Clear. —thinking he would just be right behind them kind of thing.
Sure. I presume.
We don't know anything about this company or what their intentions were or anything. So I don't want to say anything that's not kind to them. But the problem was he became disoriented coming back down because his coworkers removed the markers for the trail, he pin dropped his location to his coworkers and then a second pin around 4:00 PM. At that time, they're like, "Hey, hey dude, you're in the wrong direction. Go back up and come back down the other path." Oh. In that time, he got disoriented, a storm came in, he lost cell service, and unfortunately they did not report him missing until 9:00 PM. He spent the night on the mountain in the severe weather. He finally got cell service the next morning and was rescued the next morning. But can you imagine going back to work with those people the next day? Whenever it is that you return.
I bet she's all finger-pointing. I mean, he's pissed at them.
We thought he was with Sam. We thought he was with Lou. Yeah.
But like, dude, you know, you were supposed to be back by 2 o'clock in the morning. We called in at 9. You should be grateful.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Oh my God, that's a retreat gone awry.
Yeah. So that's not exactly what you're after with a company retreat. That is not a great example of what happens at a team building exercise. That's the opposite of team building.
