Recently I have come to the conclusion and I am sure to many of you this is not news, but socialising of any form outside of work with people from your team is not only a very good thing but it is necessary. My professional relationships on the whole are better with people who I have spent time with outside of work and I think that is quite an important thing to recognise.
I go for drinks with my entire team (ok yes all 3 of us) at least once a week and yes it helps that we all get on, but even a while down the pub on a Friday night helps a hell of a lot. I worked on a team for around 18 months where out of 5 people, one person ever went out with other people from work and that was me. Ok I am exaggerating but the scary part is not enough that it makes a difference. Sure we had the odd drink together at company do’s where you pretty much had to be there. And you know what? that sucks big time and it certainly contributed significantly to low moral. It got to the point where they were simply the people I worked with We were not friends we did not hang out we sat at our desks and we worked and that was it. I don’t think it is an employers place to make people spend time together outside of work, but you know sometimes I would have to say that would be a good thing.