One of our most important assets and proudest achievements at WCG is our company culture. For us, investing in our employees is essential for creating and maintaining a successful business, but also for a productive, supportive, and happy work environment. After all, shouldn’t you enjoy the place where you spend 40+ hours of your week? We think so.

One of the events we look forward to every year is our company summer outing, which we have been reminiscing on more and more as summer approaches. The workday shuts down early, and we spend the rest of the day having the most fun possible (which is not difficult to do in a city known for its summer offerings).

For this year’s summer outing, we had an incredible lunch and cocktail hour at Barrio in the River North neighborhood of downtown Chicago. While enjoying our palomas, margaritas, and gourmet tacos, we played several rounds of Heads Up that seemed to get funnier with every round of drinks. When lunch and games were over, we headed out for a guided boat tour of Lake Michigan, chartered through Chicago Sailboat Charters. To say that the experience was majestic would be an understatement. For three hours, our boat snaked along the lake, revealing postcard-worthy views of the skyline against the deepening twilight. When night finally fell, a dazzling firework display punctuated our evening with beauty and electricity.

While all of the activities themselves were amazing – who doesn’t love a gourmet lunch followed by a twilight boat tour circling the Chicago skyline? – the highlight of our outing was the time we spent together as a team. Simply put, the time away from the office allowed us to enjoy each other. Playing ridiculous games, learning new things about each other, laughing about the new things we learned about each other, playing DJ and singing along to our favorite songs on the boat, sharing rides home, and laughing at photo outtakes the next day made one thing abundantly clear: our team plays together just as well as we work together. We may be biased, but we think we have the best team around.