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'Survivor' Style Corporate Retreat Descends Into Hellish Nightmare (thedailybeast.com) 113

Posted by BeauHD from the makes-for-a-great-story dept.
A $500,000 "Survivor"-style corporate retreat for 120 Plex employees in Honduras "turned into a week-long disaster involving illness, wild animals, armed guards, and employees stranded on a remote island," reports the Daily Beast. The CEO was bedridden by E. coli, staff were collapsing in brutal heat during Navy SEAL-led drills, there were fire ant attacks, uncooked food, and failing utilities. At one point, a porcupine even crashed through the ceiling of a guest's room. Here's an excerpt from the report: Tech media company Plex flew its 120 employees to a Honduran resort in 2017 for what was billed as a Survivor-style getaway. They called it "Plexcon." The first harbinger of trouble was an email that arrived before the group departed, informing them that the hotel manager and chef had both quit within days of each other. Things went sharply downhill from there.

CEO Keith Valory, 54, had flown out a day early, intending to channel his inner Jeff Probst and welcome his staff off the buses like a game show host. Instead, he spent the arrival morning flat on his back. "I got E. coli, which is maybe the worst thing you could get, possibly, ever," Valory told the Wall Street Journal this week. "Just as people were arriving on the buses, I was like, 'Uh oh.' I lost 8 or 10 pounds. They had a doctor come to me, which apparently is pretty standard. They nailed an IV bag to the bedpost."

With the CEO incapacitated, chief product officer and co-founder Scott Olechowski, 52, stepped in to run proceedings -- beginning with a forced eating challenge in which one employee had to consume a dead tarantula. [...] Sean Hoff, 42, founder of Moniker Partners, the independent retreat agency that planned the trip, was running himself ragged attempting damage control -- the showers, water, and electricity kept cutting out. [...] Meanwhile, senior software engineer Rick Phillips, 53, was trying to sleep when he heard a crash in his room. He ignored it until morning. "I got up and went over to get in the shower, and there was a porcupine," he said. "It must have climbed a tree and fallen through the ceiling."

'Survivor' Style Corporate Retreat Descends Into Hellish Nightmare More | Reply

'Survivor' Style Corporate Retreat Descends Into Hellish Nightmare

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  • Yeah (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @07:02PM (#66084202)
    I'm going to pay 500,000 to go into the jungle in Honduras. What's wrong with all these tech people?

  • Terrible Movie (Score:3)

    by Shugart ( 598491 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @07:15PM (#66084220)
    Sounds like a terrible movie. I think I will pass.

  • I had to Google to confirm that. I dont want to be impaled by one when it falls

  • Fun porcupine fact (Score:5, Funny)

    by Powercntrl ( 458442 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @07:31PM (#66084250) Homepage

    They can live up to 18 years in the wild. So, if it wasn't injured in its fall through the ceiling, it's possible the porcupine is still alive today to pester other tech bros on vacation in the jungle.
     

    • it's possible the porcupine is still alive today to pester other tech bros on vacation in the jungle.

      We can only hope.

    • Sadly, it's too old to date them.

    • Additional fun fact that might matter: Old World porcupines do not climb trees, but New World porcupines do.

      So if you're European and are puzzling about how the porcupine got that high up? It climbed all by itself.

    • They can live up to 18 years in the wild. So, if it wasn't injured in its fall through the ceiling, it's possible the porcupine is still alive today to pester other tech bros on vacation in the jungle.

      They can live up to 18 years in the wild. So, if it wasn't injured in its fall through the ceiling, it's possible the porcupine is still alive today to pester other tech bros on vacation in the jungle.

      Tech bros getting quilled trying to rage on a porcupine because they don't have internet, its a perfect counter.

  • I was there (Score:5, Interesting)

    by gbooker ( 60148 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @07:51PM (#66084276) Homepage Journal
    So the first question, why is this a news story now when it occurred in 2017?

    My best guess is that with the second season of Jury Duty being about a corporate retreat, the WSJ (who wrote the first article on this) contacted Moniker as they organize such retreats (and have organized them for Plex for many years). I expect they ask about bad experiences and this trip immediately came to mind.

    Did this all happen?
    Yes Also, I was talking with Sean (Hoff) just over a year ago and he told me other things that happened that I likely shouldn't repeat. This trip was extremely stressful for him which likely ranks it very high for worst trips for him.
    The shower porcupine mostly became a topic of laughter as it started contained and remained so.

    120 employees?
    Uh, I think that's a confusion with Plex's current employee count and not what it was in 2017. This was before the AVOD side of the business and everyone worked on Personal Media so the company was much smaller then. I think it was ~70 or so then. Now the Personal Media side of the business is significantly smaller than what it was back then.

    How was it overall?
    Mostly it was a fun trip. There were several things we did have to concern ourselves with which did detract from the trip. Yes the water broke all the time but also we didn't want to drink it anyway (I never did; didn't even brush my teeth with the water from the tap). There was also a concern about mosquitos especially since Zika was spreading there. We couldn't really go into the ocean because there were jellyfish all over the place. On the planes to Utila (the island in the article), looking out the window I could see nothing but water and jellyfish.

    How was it for me?
    Mostly it was fine. I did prepare by getting up to date on all my vaccinations beforehand, getting malaria medication, mosquito repellent, etc. I did make the mistake of eating the salad on my last day so I got sick when I got home. Fortunately I had gone to a doctor who specialized in travel beforehand so I had medication on hand already. Never had it as bad as Keith.
    Honestly, the most dangerous I felt on the trip was the bus from the airport to the resort.

    • You paid $500,000.00 for this?

    • My best guess is that with the second season of Jury Duty being about a corporate retreat

      Occasionally I need reminders as to why I havent owned a television set in 20 years. Yep, shits still brain-damaged out there in TV land

      • Occasionally I need reminders as to why I havent owned a television set in 20 years. Yep, shits still brain-damaged out there in TV land

        https://theonion.com/area-man-... [theonion.com]

        • Funny.

          But...“People don’t realize just how much time their TV-watching habit–or, shall I say, addiction–eats up. Four hours of television a day, over the course of a month, adds up to 120 hours. That’s five entire days! Why not spend that time living your own life, instead of watching fictional people live theirs? I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am not to own a television.”...when I look at the last paragraph, I think, "He's not wrong."

          • Watching television can be an extremely rewarding way to spend a segment of your life. The trick is to watch good TV. If a drama can be reasonably described as "watching fictional people live their life", that's not good TV. Good drama will be about something. It will convey things. Stuff like that.

            • Yes. Today it's not the only, nor maybe even the best, information source. But it is still a useful tool. I quite enjoyed watching the Artemis II splashdown a little bit ago. We enjoyed it on the bigscreen on one of the networks, but I monitored it on my comp to be able to hear comms when the talking heads on TV stepped on them. I had it on the NasaTV app on my phone for when I wandered outside. (that worked until the app foobared :( but yt worked :)

              Many moons ago I did something similar for business: it to

    • So the first question, why is this a news story now when it occurred in 2017?

      Well you know, Slashdot's moderation is not always the fastest...

      Which raises another question: will the first dupe of this story be posted in 2035?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I think it was brought up because a youtuber brought it up recently in one of their videos and it probably went viral.

      He mentioned how it was billed as supposedly a relaxing spa type retreat that wasn't, and what was a disaster for some, others found fun and team building.

      It wasn't captured as anything other than "CEO misreads room for team building event". All I know is such activities aren't for me so I don't know if those who weren't equipped to do that sort of thing had an alternative thing or they were

  • Right from the start, you could see it wasn't gonna go well. FTA:
    Locals: "Don't eat the salad! Don't eat the salad!" (Translation: We don't wash our hands down here in Nicaragua like we should. BAD news, essay!)
    CEO: I can't skip my salad. I'm a healthy eater! (Translation: I know better than you people.)
    Locals: Ok, boss. (... !Que pinchi cavron.)

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by pjt33 ( 739471 )

      It's not about hand-washing so much as not being exposed to the local microbiome. When I travelled in Latin America the advice was to soak vegetables in diluted iodine for at least 20 minutes before using them to make salad.

    • Re:The CEO ignoring the locals' advice == red flag (Score:4, Informative)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday April 09, 2026 @04:12AM (#66084732)

      Locals: "Don't eat the salad! Don't eat the salad!" (Translation: We don't wash our hands down here in Nicaragua like we should. BAD news, essay!)

      I can tell you don't travel. Actually the problem is usually the exact opposite, they likely do wash their hands, and more importantly they wash the food as well. In countries with water borne diseases, especially tourists can easily get sick by eating food that was washed in that water if it hasn't been sterilized.

      The CEO wasn't following basic health precautions for a trip such as this is most likely the case. You can easily eat healthily. Stick to peeled fruits and vegetables. Stick to cooked sides (Bok choy in soup was a staple of mine on my last trip to the less hygienic areas of Asia). Drink bottled water or tea, etc. etc. etc.

      The locals on the other hand have had years to get accustomed to different bacteria, so while something like e.coli may still get them, most other bacteria that will have the average westerner confined to the toilet seat for days has no effect on them.

  • Weird Plex but ok

  • Still better than working for Electronic Arts.

  • "Oh, dear. Anyway..." (Score:3)

    by ewhac ( 5844 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @09:28PM (#66084392) Homepage Journal

    ...My installation of minidlna still works fine, is Free Software, and doesn't phone home or exfiltrate my metadata.

  • Navy SEAL drills work best for Navy SEALs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Beeftopia ( 1846720 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @09:32PM (#66084398)

    I read Richard Marcinko's leadership book (Marcinko was the SEAL who founded DEVGRU, the SEAL's most elite unit, aka Team Six). From it, I concluded this: Applying Navy SEAL principles to lead people works best when the people are physically and mentally built like Navy SEALs. Most people are not, not even elite company CEO's and their staff.

    It becomes a game of square peg / round hole.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      I read Richard Marcinko's leadership book (Marcinko was the SEAL who founded DEVGRU, the SEAL's most elite unit, aka Team Six). From it, I concluded this: Applying Navy SEAL principles to lead people works best when the people are physically and mentally built like Navy SEALs. Most people are not, not even elite company CEO's and their staff.

      It becomes a game of square peg / round hole.

      Special Operator type training is far too advanced for a corporate retreat, what they really need is basic. Learning how to march as a unit, work as a unit, understand and follow orders, et al. Shit that a soldier is expected to have down pat long before they ever get advanced training. Training that might actually be useful in helping people work together or improving discipline... However the ego of your average corporate dick will never allow that, they think they're special so they want the special trai

      • Question: why do they need any of that at all? Why have your employees do this stupid shit? What does it accomplish? Can the bros really not think of a better way to spend $500k? Does this really enhance your product? Does this really help people get their work done and gel as a team? Or... is it really so the CEO can say "hey guys, guess what we did, lol (not me, i was faking E.Coli so i could stay in my room)" to his cadre of other insufferable douchebags at the next conference?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by mjwx ( 966435 )

          Question: why do they need any of that at all? Why have your employees do this stupid shit? What does it accomplish? Can the bros really not think of a better way to spend $500k? Does this really enhance your product? Does this really help people get their work done and gel as a team? Or... is it really so the CEO can say "hey guys, guess what we did, lol (not me, i was faking E.Coli so i could stay in my room)" to his cadre of other insufferable douchebags at the next conference?

          Less of a need and more of what would be beneficial. They don't actually need any such training but one thing the armed forces teaches in basic is how to work together, even with people you don't like and that would be beneficial in an office environment (have you ever tried herding cats into a coherent meeting).

          But it's a moot point as those with an abundance of ego and dearth of talent or self awareness would never accept that they'd learn anything from "basic" training.

    • Yeah, for regular seals, it's better to organize teambuilding meetings in a club.

  • It's either Honduras ... (Score:3)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Wednesday April 08, 2026 @09:42PM (#66084410)

    ... or we take all you cute guys for a weekend at the Bohemian Grove.

    You choose.

  • Plex? (Score:3)

    by paul_engr ( 6280294 ) on Thursday April 09, 2026 @01:00AM (#66084556)
    I remember when plex was a thing. They fucking ruined it.

  • This is nature, folks (Score:4, Insightful)

    by vbdasc ( 146051 ) on Thursday April 09, 2026 @01:11AM (#66084578)

    Don't call nature "hellish nightmare".

    • Is it not, tho?

    • I get your point, but... Nature wasn't all built for humans. So as humans, we're allowed to judge some parts of nature from our perspective and declare them to be "hellish nightmares" (for humans).

      An erupting volcano is perfectly natural...

    • You might be fine with a dark alleyway in a bad area. A rape victim or soldier might be hugely traumatized and unable to cope with that same environment. Pain tolerance also... well everything.

      Then you have gut biology... just traveling somewhere and getting exposed to local bacteria in the food/water can make you incredibly sick for quite a while until your biology adjusts. This example is not psychological, just to point out other relativity. Medical?? Your job doesn't require navy-seal intro classes so

    • For the average human being in modern society, nature is a hellish nightmare. Wild animals have no qualms with gorging on your entrails while you scream and flail helplessly as you die. The plants that will poison you will not label themselves as such and food will not deliver itself to you. Humans can absolutely live there. Our ancestors all did at some point and some groups still do to this day, but for the average person being thrown into that nature is a death sentence and one that likely involves a lot

  • The firstest of the first world, so unbelievably overly protected, overly privileged and completely delusional, they would pay to play pseudo Gravy-SEAL in Honduras.
    This HAS to be a company from CA, because this is really next level delusional.

  • A company with good HR means the HR leader has actual authority to pull the plug on insane shit like this.

    They would have the sense to consider if this is really a good idea, have people sign waivers for legality reasons (which already tells you it's a bad idea) and when it all goes wrong with the head chef and management quitting to then say "oh big red flag, maybe we shouldn't do this?!".

    When you do not have a specific HR leader it's every other manager that becomes (or should be) that HR leader. They

  • Not as bad... (Score:3)

    by UnixUnix ( 1149659 ) on Thursday April 09, 2026 @02:36AM (#66084636) Homepage
    ...as a day at the office.

  • How the heck does plex have 120 employees?

    As to why this was just posted now, it's because - of those 120 employees who went to the retreat, only one survived... and it took him almost 9 years to escape.

  • I mean, i as an employee would love a trip like that, and i bet that people signing up for this were looking forward to it too. It's a shame the execution failed. Also i think the article is quite sensationalist, reading the last quote: Schlender, despite the fire ants, the mystery injection, and the island ordeal, calls it âoeone of the most fun trips ever.â
  • Even if everything had gone "well" by their own intentions who on earth would enjoy that? It's bad enough when a company does a day long team building event but being trapped on an island with coworkers doing this shit, is an ordeal.
    • I wonder if there has ever been any real research done on whether or not these retreats provide any benefit. And if they do, do they provide more or less benefit than just taking your staff on a fancy vacation.
      • Narcissists don't need evidence to know that talking about themselves to other people in a retreat will help.
        • Yeah, but that can't be all it is. These things didn't start because people wanted to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to hear themselves speak, especially since they're mostly listening to some other person speak. They don't run these things, there's an outside "professional" running the program. And they don't just piss money away; they want to see a return on the investment. So, someone has convinced them that these team building exercises will boost productivity, and I'd like to know how becau
          • During the pandemic I was mind blown about the number of people who could not function unless they are in the company of others. My guess is that people who are dependent on others are easily convinced by salespeople that these things help.
            • I don't think so. That humans are social animals wouldn't account for it. And these are people who like to see numbers before spending money and commonly need other approvals.

              Maybe they really do work, but if they do I'd want to see if taking everyone to the beach for a week of fun and booze is as effective.

              • It's funny... when I was a kid I was supposed to be independent. Now that I'm an adult, apparently humans are social animals.
                • Well, when you're a kid your job is to grow up and not be dependent upon your parents. You will still depend upon others, if for nothing other than company. People go a bit strange when deprived of human contact. Chatting on the internet doesn't quite fill the void either, something about the physical presence of others is important for our minds. Even if you don't like them.
                  • Yes people are weak. It's like these are the same people who complain about others being sheep.. but they need a herd too.

  • I got E. coli, which is maybe the worst thing you could get, possibly, ever

    Really? Has he not heard of HIV, Cancer, Leukemia, COVID, Rabies, Leprosy, Ebola, Smallpox and a million other deadly and terrifying illnesses.

    • I know it sounds benign, but when you're afflicted by it during a travel, you really want to be somewhere else, like in a house with proper toilets and an unlimited supply of soft toilet paper.

  • shit's & giggles,

  • ... for an absolutely hilarious screwball comedy movie.

  • I believe there are good reasons to suspect this story is not true. If this was really a "Survival" style corporate retreat, I would expect instances of cannibalism. Without strong evidence for such behaviour, maybe a femur in the fire pit, or perhaps a couple of picked-clean ribs, I have to question what we're being told.

  • I've been to worse corporate retreats. I don't think HR lives in the same reality as the rest of us and C-levels need to stop reading books they heard about on Tik Tok.
  • Now THAT is a team-building exercise!
  • ... they have a few questions to ask you about your "Naked and Afraid" retreat.

  • Very interesting!!! I want to watch this as a movie!

  • How about they spend that time and money on improving Plex? I haven't seen meaningful improvements in their software in ages and it needs quite a few.

  • Now there is a contradiction of terms. A week of Navy SEAL training - what could be more relaxing?

  • Did they not see "White Mile?"

  • beginning with a forced eating challenge in which one employee had to consume a dead tarantula

    First boss of mine that is forcing me to do that kind of shit is probably suing me for assault. On him.

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