Going Off the Grid With Work Friends

“You should come visit sometime.” It’s one of those things coworkers who live in different states say all the time. It’s warm, genuine and rarely acted on.

But this time was different.

Instead of letting the idea fade in a Teams chat, one of my colleagues followed up and said, “We’re making it happen. You in?”

That’s how five of us ended up spending quality time on an outdoor adventure at Zion National Park this summer.

Five coworkers. One national park. Countless memories. 

The five of us all work in the same Cox division, but our paths don’t cross in the same office every day. We’re a mix of cross-functional partners spread across different teams, time zones and ways of working. 

Three of us flew in from the East Coast, while two drove down from Northern Utah. Some work fully remotely, while others follow hybrid schedules, splitting our weeks between working from home and either the office in Draper, UT, or our Atlanta headquarters. Cox makes room for these different ways of working, which meant that this trip took a little planning. It also made finally being together that much more meaningful.  
 
We hiked The Narrows, which is exactly what it sounds like: trekking upriver with canyon walls towering on both sides, water flowing past our knees and all of us finding our footing and laughing in the moments where we didn’t. There’s a specific kind of trust that builds when you’re all a little out of your depth. And there’s something special about experiencing it together in one of America’s national parks. Standing on public land that humbles you a little and belongs to all of us has a way of putting everything into perspective.

 After that, we earned the calmer half of the trip: views of Bryce Canyon and a spa day to put everyone back together. By the time we headed home, we’d shared plenty of laughs, had our fair share of sore muscles and made memories we’ll never forget. We came back to work with stronger relationships and a deeper appreciation for one another, something that will shape how well we work together moving forward.

What an integrated life looks like

Your career, your interests and the people you care about aren’t separate lanes that you’re forever merging between. They’re one road and you’re driving all of it at once. A trip like this is only possible when your company is built to make room for it. And ours is.  

We synced our PTO so we could log off at the same time. We used the benefits and perks already available to us as Cox employees, such as ticket discounts, travel bookings and rental car deals (shoutout to Cox Automotive!) that made this trip easy on everyone’s budget.  

Flexible PTO and benefits that recognize you have a life outside of work aren’t extras. They’re the reason a trip we kept talking about became a trip we actually took.  

Every so often, a week reminds you of the whole point: that an integrated life isn’t a tagline or a slide in a benefits deck. It’s what happens when the people you work with become the people you’d choose to get lost in a canyon with. Five work friends and I traded meetings for canyon walls to disconnect, breathe and bond.

Somewhere along the trail, somebody said what we were all already thinking: “How lucky are we?”

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