I’m sitting in the hotel lobby waiting for my ride to the Tulum Airport. I’m already missing the AMAZING week I just had.

I have mentioned multiple times here that working remotely is the best decision I have ever made. I would never, by choice, go back to working in an office. But those two or three weeks every year we get to spend together with our teams, divisions, etc., are truly priceless.

This year’s Woo Division Meetup (or Woo DM) had a little extra layer of special.

If you are part of the WordPressphere you are probably aware of what is going on. This is not gonna be one of the I Stayed posts. My colleague Dan Q wrote a pretty good post about the whole situation. If you are interested, you can catch up here. Learn more about Automattic’s great resignation here. If you want a media article, CNBC did a pretty good job telling the whole story here.

The thing is, we lost a lot of people. 159 Automatticians to be precise. Not all of them left because they were not aligned. I thing the vast majority just saw a good opportunity to make a different career move.

I never thought about taking the offer, but last week took a toll on all of us. It was a weird and sad week. So the Woo DM worked not only as it usually does, a week to bond with colleagues, have fun and collaborate in person. It was also one hundred times more energizing than it usually is. It had that little taste of “we are here because we believe in this. LFG!!!”. A togetherness that feels special. We could talk, discuss, and share our concerns, opinions, memories and new ideas for the future of Woo and WordPress.

And between Hurricane Milton lurking over and threatening to wreak havoc over the Yucatan peninsula and scorching hot days, I had the best of times.

Seeing my teammates is a guarantee of having a great time. Seeing people from other teams I collaborate with all the time is amazing. It was a week of amazing food, great conversations, karaoke (I even hosted it one night with another colleague), swimming in the blue Caribbean ocean, visiting Cenotes, walks by the beach and, of course, a lot of work.

The small details from the Events team, like coming back to our rooms and finding the hotel staff had Automattic-branded cable holders and organized the cable in the rooms (I guess I was punished for being organized and never leaving a cable lying around so I didn’t get one LOL).

We also got neat Woo-branded Stanley Cup, lots of sunscreen, some fancy food

and, of course, this view:

It was a great week. Now it’s time to roll our sleeves and get to work. We have a lot of work ahead of us. And it’s gonna be awesome!