At Synergy Codes we firmly believe you're much more satisfied with your job when you’re a part of a harmonious team. How to create a good team whose members enjoy spending time together? That's easy to answer - let your colleagues escape from the office for a while and organize for them an epic awayday that they'd remember for long months. Arranging day trips is a great way to encourage employees to take on different, fresh perspectives. It gives them a chance to bond with those they might not have communicated with before. Recently, we've been glad to meet a few talented fellows, so we wanted to welcome them on board properly. Now, sit back, relax and experience it once again with us - here's a quick story of that great weekend break.

Finding the right location for our annual retreat wasn't a piece of cake, but all we knew was we wanted to be out of the city for that time. It's obvious to say that leaving a working place helps stimulate new ideas and ways of interactions among people. After a few days of searching for a perfect place to surprise us, Kasia chose a very luxury Villa&Mineral Spa Hotel situated in the heart of the Izery Mountains. Cottonina turned out to be a magnificent place to chill, slow down and spend more time together outside of work. The resort welcomed us with open arms, offering us a wide range of accommodation possibilities, a professional SPA & Wellness center, an excellent restaurant and a cozy jazz club. 

Very excited and full of hope for a good weekend, we arrived at Świeradów-Zdrój around noon and started with filling up our stomachs in a hotel restaurant. Soon after dinner we left, so that we could find out the headliner of that day. Kasia was the only person who knew what was going to happen, but obviously, she didn’t breathe a word. 

To our surprise, the bus stopped and we saw slightly baffling, but still amazing sight: the ruins of the old Świecie Castle. We were warmly welcomed by its owner who we spent another hour with. She told us tons of stories about her precious property, its history, and former inhabitants. At the beginning, we were listening to them with bated breath. However, this isn't a secret that the weather was definitely “autumnal”, so we started to freeze after a while and shuffled our feet. After an hour, we were already looking around and racking our brains, but couldn’t hit upon idea what was going to happen next. 

So, what was it for?  Do you really think that this guided tour headlined our awayday? No, it didn’t. Kasia turned out to be more foxy than we thought she was. She did this to dull our vigilance and let us start questioning her creativity. The bus driver took us to another place and there the real fun began! It was a military role-play simulation that was prepared for us!

The captain had no intentions to treat us with kids' gloves and from the very beginning he didn’t spare words approaching us. We received a professional apparel, maps, and code-breaking equipment, and then we were split into two plutons. We were given one goal: that of finding a Nazi general who had holed up in the neighborhood. 

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon facing real military jobs, including target shooting activities, taking the oath, decoding secret messages or even singing some of the military songs. We were working hard in our teams to complete all the assigned tasks. After three hours of intensive marching, the mission was accomplished and we killed two birds with one stone. The general didn't stand a chance with us, and, more importantly, we found a real treasure - a wooden case with a secret potion inside.

After heading back to our hotel, we had about 2 hours of free time and everyone could make use of it as they wished. As already mentioned, the hotel is equipped with great SPA facilities, so the majority of us decided to recharge our batteries in jacuzzi and saunas.

On the stroke of eight, we gathered at the Cotton Club and started our feast. Selected dishes of local cuisine made a perfect starter for the rest of the evening. Laughing till our sides ache,  we were discussing our military experience from that day and learning some new facts about each other. We were feasting until late night, but don’t expect me to tell you all the stories that happened that night. All in all, it was another fantastic evening, enjoyed by everyone and let’s stop here ;-) 

Would you like to be a part of this experience in the next integration trips? What else could your gain from working with us? Visit synergycodes.com/careers/ and learn more about career opportunities at Synergy Codes