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If the team is small (if it is big, maybe chuck the teams for this purpose?), the whole team may consider going together for a week or two of company-sponsored

If the team is small (if it is big, maybe chuck the teams for this purpose?), the whole team may consider going together for a week or two of company-sponsored paid vacation. Last year in December, we took the whole Wingify team to Thailand and the camaraderie couldn't have been better. All of us realized it was a great way to disconnect and a fun way to increase the team morale. Each one of us loved it :) For the curious, here are some pics: http://team.wingify.com/thailand-trip-pictures http://team.wingify.com/thailand-trip-pictures

georgemcbay 14y ago
I'm sure you had great fun on your trip, but for most people I believe that going with your workmates would make it much, much harder to truly disconnect. Sure, maybe you aren't sitting around with laptops and whatnot, but I'm sure all sorts of work talk will pop up.
- paraschopra 14y ago
  Yes, I agree with you. But we tried to only have the fun.
- tikhonj 14y ago
  On the other hand, assuming this supplements rather than replaces a normal vacation, it could just be a fun and relaxed way of brainstorming. After all, at an interesting company, chances are work talk will pop up because people genuinely enjoy it. Just talking about work a bit does not ruin a vacation! This reminds me of what one of my professors talked about recently: a skiing trip is great because you can enjoy yourself and talk about research on the ski lift. So taking your entire research group on a skiing trip would be a nice compromise between taking a break and having time to talk and think about what you're working on. I actually think it sounds great. Partly because I love skiing and partly because I also love talking about CS.
  - georgemcbay 14y ago
    "On the other hand, assuming this supplements rather than replaces a normal vacation, it could just be a fun and relaxed way of brainstorming." I agree. I'm not against "team building" vacations, but I don't think they serve the same purpose as the vacation type being advocated in the article.
lsc 14y ago
>the whole team may consider going together for a week or two of company-sponsored paid vacation. That can be okay, and sometimes even really great, with the right team, but it can also be boring to painful, with the wrong team. There seems to be this idea of 'cultural fit' whereby people that work together need to be able to be great friends outside of work. I mean, sometimes this works well, and sometimes it doesn't. Usually (but not always) it means your team won't be able to handle introverts or the socially unskilled quite as well. Depending on the crowd, this can also mean that you end up with something of a cultural monoculture, which, if nothing else, drives up costs and drives down average quality of your developers. I mean, of the people I know, I probably mingle my work and my personal lives more than anyone else, but even for me? I act differently around people at work than I do around friends. There are certain... appearances that must be kept up, you know? and not all of us are extroverts. And really? often the vacation I need most is a vacation from someone I work with. Sometimes, even someone else going on vacation improves things; I know there have been cases where I wasn't getting on with someone; they took a long vacation, and upon return we were able to make something of a fresh start, and ended up working together, I mean, not perfectly, but well enough.

georgemcbay 14y ago

I'm sure you had great fun on your trip, but for most people I believe that going with your workmates would make it much, much harder to truly disconnect. Sure, maybe you aren't sitting around with laptops and whatnot, but I'm sure all sorts of work talk will pop up.

paraschopra 14y ago
Yes, I agree with you. But we tried to only have the fun.
tikhonj 14y ago
On the other hand, assuming this supplements rather than replaces a normal vacation, it could just be a fun and relaxed way of brainstorming. After all, at an interesting company, chances are work talk will pop up because people genuinely enjoy it. Just talking about work a bit does not ruin a vacation! This reminds me of what one of my professors talked about recently: a skiing trip is great because you can enjoy yourself and talk about research on the ski lift. So taking your entire research group on a skiing trip would be a nice compromise between taking a break and having time to talk and think about what you're working on. I actually think it sounds great. Partly because I love skiing and partly because I also love talking about CS.
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  "On the other hand, assuming this supplements rather than replaces a normal vacation, it could just be a fun and relaxed way of brainstorming." I agree. I'm not against "team building" vacations, but I don't think they serve the same purpose as the vacation type being advocated in the article.

lsc 14y ago

>the whole team may consider going together for a week or two of company-sponsored paid vacation. That can be okay, and sometimes even really great, with the right team, but it can also be boring to painful, with the wrong team. There seems to be this idea of 'cultural fit' whereby people that work together need to be able to be great friends outside of work. I mean, sometimes this works well, and sometimes it doesn't. Usually (but not always) it means your team won't be able to handle introverts or the socially unskilled quite as well. Depending on the crowd, this can also mean that you end up with something of a cultural monoculture, which, if nothing else, drives up costs and drives down average quality of your developers. I mean, of the people I know, I probably mingle my work and my personal lives more than anyone else, but even for me? I act differently around people at work than I do around friends. There are certain... appearances that must be kept up, you know? and not all of us are extroverts. And really? often the vacation I need most is a vacation from someone I work with. Sometimes, even someone else going on vacation improves things; I know there have been cases where I wasn't getting on with someone; they took a long vacation, and upon return we were able to make something of a fresh start, and ended up working together, I mean, not perfectly, but well enough.