For Valuemotive, October’s work health promotion was all about fall colours and cottage life.
Valuemotivians headed once again to Villa Paradise in Nuuksio to work and for some quality time together as a team. We booked a two-night stay from Thursday morning to Saturday morning. Villa Paradise is already familiar villa to us Valuemotivians. We knew to expect beautiful scenery and excellent working conditions within sensible drive from Helsinki and were not let down! There were well-equipped kitchen facilities, spacious living room quarters for work and play as well as sleeping quarters for as many as 14. Most importantly there were a wood-heated sauna and a hot tub which we enjoyed a lot. The villa was dog friendly, too, so our People assistant Lulu was able to join in the fun with us.
The first delegation arrived early Thursday morning to set things up and running. My Valemotivemobile showed up in the afternoon with Arttu, Erkki, some fish and overly anxious Lulu, who doesn’t like car rides at all. Others arrived throughout the day when it suited them and their schedule. This time around we decided to add a bit of luxury to our stay and booked linen, towels and half of the meals ready and delivered for our stay. Some meals we cooked ourselves. The biggest of thanks and a round of applause to Jari who was our main breakfast and dinner chef as well as Joona who filleted the fish relentlessly with his pocketknife! The fish turned out exquisite and was the favorite dish of us all. We also had amazing burgers and of course – traditionally – grilled some sausages by the open fire.
We worked hard during the day, sitting together around the dining table and living room, focusing on our remote work meetings as well as other tasks at hand. To me, it was great. We have somewhat people at the office during the week, but there were more Valuemotivians under the same roof than usual.
After office hours, we tucked our laptops and headphones away and turned the work mode off. Straightaway the sauna was heating up, some beverages were in hand and the time off had started. We didn’t have any activities booked per se, or as the CBO (Chief Beer Officer) Erkki put it: “we make our own food and have our own fun”, but the stand-up paddling boards were for us to use and Arttu took us to a little bird watching tour in the near woods. As a Valuemotive tradition, some board games were brought with us, too, and Cards Against the Humanity came to play during the late hours.
Personally, this was my first time in Villa Paratiisi and my first over-night stay with my fellow Valuemotivians. I had the best time with the best company! I especially enjoyed the deep sauna talks, plans for our new Valuemotive beer (It’s going to be called Liemi and label is going be a picture of Erkki laughing) and a lot of laughing throughout the day and night. Lulu enjoyed the people and the love so much, she was absolutely dog-tired when we got home. Despite the exhaustion, we can’t wait for the next adventure!
Pictures taken by Jari and Joona 📷
Comments