The $500,000 Corporate Retreat from Hell: Plex’s Survivor Trip in Honduras Nearly Killed the Team
In 2017, streaming company Plex decided to do something special for its 120 fully remote employees, many of whom had never met in person.
What could possibly go wrong?
As it turned out — almost everything.
The retreat quickly spiraled into a real-life survival situation that felt less like a corporate bonding exercise and more like an episode of Survivor directed by a sadistic producer.
Day One: The CEO Is Down
Things went south before most employees even arrived. Keith Valory flew in early to greet everyone like Jeff Probst, the iconic Survivor host. Instead, he ate a seemingly innocent salad and came down with a severe case of E. coli. He spent most of the trip bedridden in his room, hooked up to an IV and losing nearly 10 pounds (about 4.5 kg).
While the CEO was out of commission, the rest of the team was left in the hands of former Navy SEALs and overenthusiastic organizers.
Tarantulas, Fire Ants, and Military Drills in 100°F Heat
One unlucky employee, Shawn Eldridge, opened his to find a dead tarantula. He ate it anyway — hairs and all — later describing the experience as “pretty horrible.”
Next came the physical challenges. Former Navy SEALs put the mostly desk-bound tech workers through intense military-style drills on the beach in scorching 100°F (38°C) heat. Employees were forced to army-crawl across the sand. One person passed out. Another, Greta Schlender, accidentally sat on a **fire ant hill**, triggering a massive allergic reaction. She received an emergency antihistamine shot… straight into her butt cheek.
And the wildlife wasn’t done yet. A porcupine fell through the ceiling into one employee’s shower. Sand fleas swarmed the resort. Power and water kept cutting out during a heat wave. Meals were often undercooked or strangely prepared, with warnings to avoid most vegetables.
Stranded on an Island with Reggae and Beer
As darkness fell, more than a hundred Plex employees found themselves stranded overnight. With nothing else to do, they bought beer, put on matching tank tops, and spent the night on the beach listening to reggae music in the dark.
One employee later joked that they simply decided: “There’s nothing we can do. Let’s just make the most of it.”
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The Ironic Ending: It Actually Worked
Employees formed incredibly strong bonds through shared trauma and inside jokes. Many who barely knew each other before the trip became close friends. Y
ears later, participants still talk about it fondly as “one of the most fun trips ever,” and some stayed with the company for nearly a decade.
Even CEO Keith Valory later reflected that these kinds of intense shared experiences are “the life-sustaining force of the company.”
So yes — Plex’s $500,000 Honduras retreat was a spectacular disaster. But in the strangest way possible, it succeeded in doing exactly what it was meant to do: it turned 120 remote strangers into a tight-knit team that had survived tarantulas, fire ants, and a very real taste of Survivor.
Would you go on a corporate retreat like this? Probably not. But for the Plex team, it became the story they still tell — and laugh about — almost ten years later.