It's a joy for me to go to work. Of course, I have the advantage of working at home, a 50ft commute, and working with my wife, someone whose company I enjoy. In all of the places I've worked over the years, it's been refreshing to go to work with people with whom I get along, and distressing to go see those I don't like. In places where I have a preponderance of the latter type of people, the job is a grind that wears me out. I only keep going until I can find another place of employment.

Recently I was in Cambridge, UK for a meeting with my group at Red Gate Software. I go over once or twice a year and spend a few days with my department and a few days in the office. This time one of the days I was planning on being in the office was a "day out" for our part of the company. Twenty-some people took a bus to another town where we etched a picture and printed it during the first half of the day, and then toured the GainsBorough house and museum in the afternoon.

It wasn't quite the trip I had in mind, and I was tempted to try and skip the trip and return home a day early, but I went along. It turned out to be a fun day, and I had the chance to meet new people in the company, and get to know others that I had met before. In some ways it reminded me of previous jobs where we had excursions to movies, baseball games, miniature golf, and even cookouts. All those events, often during work hours, were nice breaks from work.

However they also made the job more enjoyable. I got to know co-workers better and bond with them in a way that never happens in the office. I established common rapport with people, getting closer to people I liked, and often finding that I wasn't so different from others that I didn't get along with. These events made the job better, even when we were all back to our normal routines.

It seems that fewer and fewer companies actually bother to set up team-building, even at the department level. It also seems that many people would rather skip these events, and take a day off rather than spending time with co-workers in a social setting. I felt that way on this trip, but I also realized that sharing those common experiences is valuable, and can help promote synergies among a team of people that result in better work in the future.

Steve Jones

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