Earlier this month WP Engine held its quarterly All Hands week, where the entire WP Engine family—comprised of both Texas-based and remote employees—came together at the Austin headquarters to engage with each other IRL for a week of fun and festivities.
The Week at a Glance
On Monday, all of the remote and distributed team members were en route to Austin during the day. They arrived from their various locales just in time to meet the executive team for a welcome dinner. It was a nice and relaxing way to start off the week for everyone who traveled to get to Austin.
Tuesday started out with team meetings, some teams reuniting in person for the first time since last All Hands. After catching up and taking care of necessary business, each department took off for their respective off-site adventures, which they had the chance to plan and execute themselves. Whether your team went kayaking, golfing, or pub-crawling, everyone was able to get out of the office and into the sunshine for some bonding and good times.
Operations Team outing
Wednesday was more or less a “normal” work day, besides the fact that everyone was working from the Austin office together. This gave everyone a chance to relax, catch up, and get work done together. In the evening, the Employee Experience team hosted a “Minute to Win It” game night, and then lots of folks met up to go bowling afterwards.
Thursday was a company-wide day of activity and celebration. With Friday being the travel day home for remote folks, Thursday served as the sort of finale of All Hands week. After a full day of company meetings and events at the office, everyone gathered at North Door Theatre for a happy hour and dinner before the big WP Engine Talent Show that we had been looking forward to all week.
Supercharged Awards
After dinner, 5 praiseworthy employees received Quarterly Supercharged Awards. These coveted trophies go to WP Engine team members who have been nominated by their peers for going above and beyond in the areas laid out in our company values.
Supercharged Award Winners
The Supercharged Award Winners were (from left to right), Any Perez, Jason Stallings, Shayda Torabi, Cinco Coates, and Brandon DuRette. Daniel Spratlen, not pictured, received the Supercharged Leader Award.
WP Engine’s Got Talent
At WP Engine’s first-ever talent show, employees had the opportunity to show off their hidden talents and perform in front of the entire company!
Some of us had been practicing for weeks, and it showed. Turns out we have a wide variety of talents among us, from stand up comedians to talented musicians. We even have an acrobat!
Cat the acrobat
WP Engine’s executive team surprised us all by getting into character and lip synching to Bohemian Rhapsody.
WP Engine Executive Team channels Queen
Overall, the night was a huge success. WP Engine is an exciting and fast-paced environment, so it was fun to spend some time as a team just hanging out and being goofy. Our culture is so important to us as we grow, and activities like these help us get to know each other better and continue to inspire each other as a group.
Celebrating a Growing Team
Though we may have been a little sluggish and blurry-eyed from the night before, WP Engine employees arrived at the office Friday morning to a sentimental surprise.
To celebrate our growing team, WP Engine had t-shirts made to acknowledge every individual, referencing their employee number in the style of sports jerseys.
They were a huge hit. It was a bittersweet end to an amazing week as all the remote folks headed off to the airport proudly sporting their new shirts.
September All Hands 2014 was filled with camaraderie, team building, knowledge sharing, and tackling opportunities. Plus a whole lot of fun…
We already can’t wait until next time!
Michelle Oznowicz manages the WP Engine blog. With a background in entertainment and journalism,
Great team idea with the shirts. Those are the ideas that make great companies.
You guys simply rock. You are the best. Best host company so far .
keep up the good work