Mild spoilers for Severance Season 2, Episode 4 ahead.
Back in 2022, the first season of Apple TV+’s workplace satire Severance provided valuable (albeit “what NOT to do”) lessons for onboarding new hires and fostering interdepartmental collaboration. In its second season, which just wrapped, the show took a look at the oft-adored, oft-dreaded tradition of the company offsite.
In the episode “Woe’s Hollow,” Lumon Industries treats employees Mark (Adam Scott), Helly (Britt Lower), Irving (John Turturro), and Dylan (Zach Cherry) to a corporate retreat in wintry upstate New York. It becomes an outdoor excursion from hell — but here’s how Lumon’s leaders could have avoided that outcome before dropping their charges into the wilderness:
Keep your employees from getting lost
Being in nature can enhance professionals’ creativity and improve “higher-order cognitive skills,” according to Scandinavian researchers.
However, these admirable benefits will likely vanish if nature-goers find themselves hopelessly lost in an unfamiliar and dangerous environment, as the Lumon workers do. Prepare a clear orientation to the offsite’s surroundings — or, at the very least, give your employees a map.
Encourage candid discussions
The most effective corporate retreats serve as a forum for constructive and honest conversations. They’re still work events, of course — everybody should keep things professional — but with a greater degree of latitude for social forthrightness. That means not freaking out when employees have questions about their company’s possibly evil charismatic leader.
(Speaking of which, offsites are notorious venues for spilling gossip. If you share any scandalous company secrets, don’t expect employees to absorb it in rapturous silence. In fact, they might laugh.)
Build trust by limiting surveillance
Are trust falls with co-workers a corporate cliche? Yes, but Irving appreciates them for a reason. More than half of employees feel isolated at work, so it helps if they (literally) have each other’s backs.
Unfortunately, any positive trust-building effects of an offsite are obliterated if your team discovers that one of them is a plant from management lying about their true identity. Keep your eavesdropping where it belongs: at the office.
