How to organize a corporate wintering?
What does the company usually have by the middle of winter? Exhausted by cold, slush and endless cold collective. Almost everyone wants to go somewhere far away, where it's warm, for the winter ... and because they can, damn it! So that employees do not go to warm lands without a company, the company can itself organize wintering. Especially if the management is also tired of carrying drops from the cold.
For the residents of St. Petersburg, what we wrote is especially important for two reasons: we are lucky to be neighbors of Finland, which means we can use European low cost airlines, first of all - Ryanair. And while we got a surprisingly nasty climate.
As a wintering place for Nimax, we considered only places that coincide with the massive tourist routes - so we can find cheap tickets. If you travel frequently, you know that it is far from warm in the winter. Therefore, Egypt, Cyprus, Tunisia and the whole south of Europe are excluded - it is already quite cool here. A suitable climate - in India, Thailand, the Canary Islands.
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Thailand and India are good for long wintering - expensive tickets predetermine a long stay in these countries. Plus, in our opinion, it is too hot there, and this makes it difficult to work.
Our plan did not involve moving for half a year - it would disrupt the entire work of the company. We decided that it was more convenient to make short trips for 2-3 weeks, and so that everyone could go several times during the winter. Moreover, employees can work in the winter office or go on vacation here. Of course, you can go with your family.
Commercial Director Maxim and his daughter Alice on one of the beaches near our winter office
In St. Petersburg, almost everyone has a Finnish visa, and from Lappeenranta, the closest city to the border, the carrier Ryanair flies all over Europe. One of the most popular routes they have is the Canary Islands. This is the territory of Spain, which means that the Schengen visa is quite suitable. And there are ideal 20-25 degrees of heat all year round.
Now you had to choose an island, because there are a lot of them. We considered all the islands of the archipelago, of which, of course, Tenerife and Gran Canaria are more interesting in terms of relief and rich in terms of entertainment. The choice in favor of Fuerteventura was made almost by accident: we liked that there were the longest beaches, and it so happened that here we found the right house.
Flight from Lappeenranta to the Canary Islands costs between 6,000 and 10,000 rubles in both directions, including all fees. True, the night connections between flights turned out to be not very convenient, but the connecting nodes, Milan, DĂĽsseldorf and Brussels, are in themselves interesting for visiting.
We started with independent searches, the first impression was inspiring. For the money that you can rent an apartment in Petersburg, on Fuerteventura you can afford to rent a house with a pool by the sea. If we compare with renting an office, then our room of 150 square meters costs us almost 3 times more than renting a four-story house of almost 200 meters. Price range - from 700 to 1,200 euros per month. By the way, apartments on the island are even cheaper: you can find for 200 euros per month.
On Fuerteventura, residential complexes of 3-4-storey condominiums are common. There is not enough space between the houses, but there is a swimming pool. At first we focused on this option, but changed our mind and chose a house on the ocean. This, by the way, is a rarity on the island, in the neighborhood of the sea there is a big minus: from the salt spray, everything rusts. The mistress of our house said so: “Sea eats all”.
The entire extreme section of ours, the basement is now not visible. We did not find separate houses of this size.
The house is located right on the ocean, there is a separate exit to it. In the strong wind in the window splashes are flying.
Tropical style parking
The best option is to go by yourself and watch with the agent and select suitable options, so you will spend the least amount of time and nerves.
You need to be prepared for two things. First: long-term lease involves a security deposit - usually in the amount of two months rent. Second: the house can be completely without household items - dishes, bed linen and small appliances. It's not scary: there are shops of Chinese goods and IKEA. For 200-400 euros you can fill the house with everything you need.
And further. Carefully study the specific location of the house. Many houses are located in the central zones of the islands, far from the sea. Google Maps to help you.
A small beach right outside the house. You can not lie on the beach - solid stones
View of our city - Corralejo
Several sites about renting in Spain:
www.bliss-properties.com/Property-for-long-term-rent-in-Fuerteventura.shtml
www.freedom4sale.com
www.grupoestupendo.com
www.fotocasa.es
Because of this, for several days the whole idea with a winter office was hanging by a thread: we were almost left without any connection. It is good that the hostess kindly agreed to host the ADSL channel especially for us.
We had a 10 / 0.8 Mbit / s ADSL channel from Movistar, an 802.11g WiFi router was included in the connection kit. In general, the channel was enough, until more than 2 people started talking on Skype at the same time. We did not calculate a little with the router only. The four-storey house is not an apartment or office, Wi-Fi did not “reach out” to some rooms, especially on the top floor.
Having organized everything you need on the island, it remains to simplify as much as possible the fees, flights and other domestic difficulties for employees. To this end, we made a schedule - who is going to wintering for and when, and prepared two reference documents: a flight schedule and a guest book with tips for beginners - where are the nearest stores, where is the best pizza, where to rent a surfboard, and so on. In the section "How to get into the house" in particular, it was reported under which cactus key is buried. Opened a section with stories about the winter office in our blog . All the interesting and useful places were marked on the Google map:
All is ready. Winter office started
You will not believe, but yogis can work sitting on such stones
Despite the fact that the house had comfortable working areas, nobody used them. Almost all the visitors took their laptops with them and settled on the sofas. Only our project administrator, who manages the traffic of tasks for the entire production, has equipped a mini-office in the basement.
Dining area, it is - working
Workplace overlooking the ocean. Our advertising specialist Anna
An interesting relationship with time. When the working day begins in Petersburg, on the island - 6 o'clock in the morning. To work in one mode with the main office, you get up early in the morning, and after eight hours you go to sunbathe and swim. At the same time on the clock - 15.00. That is the most profitable solution - to continue living in Petersburg time.
The biggest surprise in the organization of the winter office: it turned out that not all employees need all this. Despite the obvious appeal of the idea and the extreme simplicity of the trip, more than half of the colleagues could not or did not want to go. The biggest problem is that the second half of our guys work mainly in more conservative companies, which reacted to the venture without enthusiasm. And, of course, many left the solution of visa issues for later and in the end did not have time to make the documents.
Another unexpected problem: many would like to find themselves in a more lively place than Fuerteventura. The company, on the contrary, was looking for something not very distracting from work. This turned out to be a conflict of interest, which we will try to solve next year.
A characteristic feature of local landscapes is windmills.
Especially because the city beach - 10 minutes walk
It makes a venture with a winter office quite expensive - not in terms of costs, but due to lost profits. Continuous moves seriously reduce the overall performance of the company. However, our quality of life is not determined by the amount of money earned, the cost of a car or the number of rooms in our apartment, but rather by sea, sun, impressions and the joy of life. Therefore it is worth it.
Choosing a place
For the residents of St. Petersburg, what we wrote is especially important for two reasons: we are lucky to be neighbors of Finland, which means we can use European low cost airlines, first of all - Ryanair. And while we got a surprisingly nasty climate.
As a wintering place for Nimax, we considered only places that coincide with the massive tourist routes - so we can find cheap tickets. If you travel frequently, you know that it is far from warm in the winter. Therefore, Egypt, Cyprus, Tunisia and the whole south of Europe are excluded - it is already quite cool here. A suitable climate - in India, Thailand, the Canary Islands.
')
Thailand and India are good for long wintering - expensive tickets predetermine a long stay in these countries. Plus, in our opinion, it is too hot there, and this makes it difficult to work.
Our plan did not involve moving for half a year - it would disrupt the entire work of the company. We decided that it was more convenient to make short trips for 2-3 weeks, and so that everyone could go several times during the winter. Moreover, employees can work in the winter office or go on vacation here. Of course, you can go with your family.
Commercial Director Maxim and his daughter Alice on one of the beaches near our winter office
In St. Petersburg, almost everyone has a Finnish visa, and from Lappeenranta, the closest city to the border, the carrier Ryanair flies all over Europe. One of the most popular routes they have is the Canary Islands. This is the territory of Spain, which means that the Schengen visa is quite suitable. And there are ideal 20-25 degrees of heat all year round.
Now you had to choose an island, because there are a lot of them. We considered all the islands of the archipelago, of which, of course, Tenerife and Gran Canaria are more interesting in terms of relief and rich in terms of entertainment. The choice in favor of Fuerteventura was made almost by accident: we liked that there were the longest beaches, and it so happened that here we found the right house.
Flight
Flight from Lappeenranta to the Canary Islands costs between 6,000 and 10,000 rubles in both directions, including all fees. True, the night connections between flights turned out to be not very convenient, but the connecting nodes, Milan, DĂĽsseldorf and Brussels, are in themselves interesting for visiting.
House search
We started with independent searches, the first impression was inspiring. For the money that you can rent an apartment in Petersburg, on Fuerteventura you can afford to rent a house with a pool by the sea. If we compare with renting an office, then our room of 150 square meters costs us almost 3 times more than renting a four-story house of almost 200 meters. Price range - from 700 to 1,200 euros per month. By the way, apartments on the island are even cheaper: you can find for 200 euros per month.
On Fuerteventura, residential complexes of 3-4-storey condominiums are common. There is not enough space between the houses, but there is a swimming pool. At first we focused on this option, but changed our mind and chose a house on the ocean. This, by the way, is a rarity on the island, in the neighborhood of the sea there is a big minus: from the salt spray, everything rusts. The mistress of our house said so: “Sea eats all”.
The entire extreme section of ours, the basement is now not visible. We did not find separate houses of this size.
The house is located right on the ocean, there is a separate exit to it. In the strong wind in the window splashes are flying.
Tropical style parking
The best option is to go by yourself and watch with the agent and select suitable options, so you will spend the least amount of time and nerves.
On a note. It turned out that homeowners can only be contacted through agents. In principle, this did not cause any particular difficulties, especially since some agents took their percentage from the owners of the house, and not from us. The problem was that many owners refused to rent out our house when they learned that there would be a lot of people and they would change. Because of this, the search has been somewhat delayed.
You need to be prepared for two things. First: long-term lease involves a security deposit - usually in the amount of two months rent. Second: the house can be completely without household items - dishes, bed linen and small appliances. It's not scary: there are shops of Chinese goods and IKEA. For 200-400 euros you can fill the house with everything you need.
And further. Carefully study the specific location of the house. Many houses are located in the central zones of the islands, far from the sea. Google Maps to help you.
A small beach right outside the house. You can not lie on the beach - solid stones
View of our city - Corralejo
Several sites about renting in Spain:
www.bliss-properties.com/Property-for-long-term-rent-in-Fuerteventura.shtml
www.freedom4sale.com
www.grupoestupendo.com
www.fotocasa.es
the Internet
On a note. When searching for a home, you must first ask about the Internet. He should be in the house initially, since it was very difficult to organize the connection himself. First, on the islands, many do not know English, it can be difficult to negotiate something. Secondly, with a Russian passport you will not be sold anything except a prepaid mobile Internet package with a USB modem.
Because of this, for several days the whole idea with a winter office was hanging by a thread: we were almost left without any connection. It is good that the hostess kindly agreed to host the ADSL channel especially for us.
We had a 10 / 0.8 Mbit / s ADSL channel from Movistar, an 802.11g WiFi router was included in the connection kit. In general, the channel was enough, until more than 2 people started talking on Skype at the same time. We did not calculate a little with the router only. The four-storey house is not an apartment or office, Wi-Fi did not “reach out” to some rooms, especially on the top floor.
Travel arrangements
Having organized everything you need on the island, it remains to simplify as much as possible the fees, flights and other domestic difficulties for employees. To this end, we made a schedule - who is going to wintering for and when, and prepared two reference documents: a flight schedule and a guest book with tips for beginners - where are the nearest stores, where is the best pizza, where to rent a surfboard, and so on. In the section "How to get into the house" in particular, it was reported under which cactus key is buried. Opened a section with stories about the winter office in our blog . All the interesting and useful places were marked on the Google map:
All is ready. Winter office started
Work organization
On a note. The format of the joint office work on the island was irrelevant. Each interacted with the office in St. Petersburg rather than with each other, so there was no need for a single work space. Girls sometimes worked while sunbathing on the balconies and on the small beach near the house, to which our Wi-Fi was “reaching out”.
You will not believe, but yogis can work sitting on such stones
Despite the fact that the house had comfortable working areas, nobody used them. Almost all the visitors took their laptops with them and settled on the sofas. Only our project administrator, who manages the traffic of tasks for the entire production, has equipped a mini-office in the basement.
Dining area, it is - working
Workplace overlooking the ocean. Our advertising specialist Anna
An interesting relationship with time. When the working day begins in Petersburg, on the island - 6 o'clock in the morning. To work in one mode with the main office, you get up early in the morning, and after eight hours you go to sunbathe and swim. At the same time on the clock - 15.00. That is the most profitable solution - to continue living in Petersburg time.
Problems and surprises
The biggest surprise in the organization of the winter office: it turned out that not all employees need all this. Despite the obvious appeal of the idea and the extreme simplicity of the trip, more than half of the colleagues could not or did not want to go. The biggest problem is that the second half of our guys work mainly in more conservative companies, which reacted to the venture without enthusiasm. And, of course, many left the solution of visa issues for later and in the end did not have time to make the documents.
Another unexpected problem: many would like to find themselves in a more lively place than Fuerteventura. The company, on the contrary, was looking for something not very distracting from work. This turned out to be a conflict of interest, which we will try to solve next year.
A characteristic feature of local landscapes is windmills.
On a note. Do not count on 100% performance in warm countries. It’s only in our cities that sometimes you don’t really want to leave the office. But when outside the window is 25 degrees, the sun and the beach, even the most motivated guys surrender. Count on 60-70% of normal performance.
Especially because the city beach - 10 minutes walk
It makes a venture with a winter office quite expensive - not in terms of costs, but due to lost profits. Continuous moves seriously reduce the overall performance of the company. However, our quality of life is not determined by the amount of money earned, the cost of a car or the number of rooms in our apartment, but rather by sea, sun, impressions and the joy of life. Therefore it is worth it.
Some statistics
- Costs: 6 months of renting a house - 6,000 euros, 2,000 euros - a deposit, 1,000 euros - the cost of equipment and the organization of life
- The island was visited by 19 employees from Petersburg, 1 from Moscow, 1 from Novosibirsk.
- 14 friends or relatives traveled with them.
- We made 153 flights and 16 ferries.
- 12 cities visited our guys on the way to the island.
- In total, the guys spent 677 days on the island
- Five employees began to ride the surf.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/141949/
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