Together Week lands in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

What is MUI's Together Week?

At MUI, a strong community is non-negotiable, just like flexibility and remote work. Our commitment to these values means our MUIers are spread across the globe, and we know that building connections can be a challenge in a fully distributed, async environment.

Multiple studies have shown that working remotely can lower the satisfaction of basic psychological needs like autonomy, relatedness, and competence. But we don't see this as an unsolvable problem: We choose to use this data to help us intentionally cultivate a stronger company culture. To that end, we hold Together Weeks every eight months.

Our aim for these events is to always:

🤝 Strengthen bonds and relationships
🌱 Grow as individuals and as a team
⚙️ Tackle important challenges
💡 Spark new ideas

This might sound like a lot to expect from a five-day trip, but it's during this time that we hit pause on the daily grind and get to focus on these goals, all while sharing a whole lot of good vibes.

The MUI team poses together in matching dark blue t-shirts on a white sand beach with the ocean in the background.

Destination

We love the process we've developed where everyone pitches their wildest ideas for amazing locations we could visit—I'm personally a huge fan of this approach. For this retreat, however, we had a slightly different flow as we had some time restraints. So we followed our shortlist of must-haves like good weather, easy airport connections, and great vibes. From there, we shared a list of four locations for the team to vote on: Morocco, Mexico, Cape Verde, and the Dominican Republic.

From that list, it was a very democratic process, and Punta Cana emerged as the clear favorite. Just five days after the voting started, we were booking flights and getting ready to trade our computer screens for white sand beaches. Alright, maybe we didn't really trade in our computers—good luck getting engineers to put down their laptops—but at least their screens soaked up some Caribbean sunlight, too.

Accommodation

Zel Punta Cana was our home for the week this time around, and it was the perfect combination of luxurious and chill. With private pools, beach access via golf carts, and a blend of global cuisines, it was the ideal spot for our team to recharge and relax.

Exterior of Zel, a white building with a thatched roof surrounded by palm trees.

We were intentional with our activities, baking in plenty of time for rest, organic connection, and just hanging out. This led to some incredibly spirited (and very amateur) football matches on the beach.

A man with short dark hair and a blue t-shirt prepares to kick a football on a white sand beach.

Agenda

We always use our 30/30/30 principle when building our retreat agendas: This means 30% for dedicated working sessions, 30% for conscious team-building, and 30% for pure downtime.

And the remaining 10%? Ah yes, that's the intentional buffer that allows us to be human. It gives us room to start a little late or run a little over without feeling rushed, and we embrace it. This time it gave some of us enough time to attend cocoa bean workshops at the resort 🤓 while others opted for some well-deserved relaxation by the pool and beach.

A tabletop with an ornate zig-zag tablecloth with an assortment of cacao in various stages of being processed.

Group pics

Check out all these photos of the team's happy faces living it up in the DR!

The MUI team sits around a large rectangular table for dinner.

Another angle of the MUI team sitting around a large rectangular table for dinner.

Nine members of the team stand in a circle in a cozy lounge space, smiling and posing.

Outcomes

Not to brag, but… In our post-retreat experience surveys, all respondents rated the week five stars out of five. I'll go ahead and use this opportunity to also highlight some of the feedback we got to show why we invest in these get-togethers:

For me personally, this has been the greatest retreat so far. The boat party activity was great, and we also had plenty of time for bonding.

Such an impressive hotel and location. Beautiful and super fun all-team activity.

This retreat was perfect, in terms of location, activities, and work schedule. This has been the retreat with the best balance between free and structured time. People managed to get some spontaneous activities like spa, tennis lessons, volleyball, football, and more.

Will you join us for the next Together Week?

What excites me the most about our future retreats is that we'll get to have them with even more people, as we're actively hiring.

If you're looking for a workplace where community, innovation, and teamwork take priority, you belong at MUI.

Hope to see you at our next retreat!

Visit our Careers page 👈 to learn more.