>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 r

>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.