A Tech Company Spent $500,000 on a Tropical Retreat. Everything Went Horribly Wrong

A trip meant for bonding turned chaotic as staff faced medical emergencies, unsafe conditions, and a resort that couldn’t keep water or electricity running.

BY LEILA SHERIDAN, NEWS WRITER

Illustration: Adobe Stock

One hundred and twenty fully remote employees at tech company Plex were promised a tropical, weeklong corporate retreat in Honduras. Instead, they got something much different—and much worse. 

The company, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. spent roughly $500,000 on the trip, which was designed as a Survivor-style experience, complete with team challenges, beachside bonding, and light competition. CEO Keith Valory, inspired by his and his wife’s love of the show, planned to act as a host-like figure, similar to Survivor’s Jeff Probst.

But before the retreat even began, things started to unravel.

When employees arrived at the resort, Valory was already secluded in his hotel room with a severe case of E. coli.

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“Keith woke up the day that people are coming in, Sunday morning, and he is sick as a dog,” Plex co-founder and chief product officer Scott Olechowski said, according to WSJ

Valory later traced it back to a salad. “I was like, ‘I’ve got to have a salad. Just one little salad,’” he said. “So I got E. coli. I lost 8 or 10 pounds. They had a doctor come to me. They nailed an IV bag to the bedpost.”

Even without the CEO and pseudo-host of the Survivor-style games, the retreat persisted. 

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