I was interviewed by the Financial Times for an article about how professional firms handle the slump in summer utilisation rates. As I say in the article:  

"The problem with offering professionals remote working as a reward during the summer is that, come the autumn, it makes the requirement to spend more time in the office look like a punishment." It also reinforces the idea that working from home is not proper working.  "Professional employees aren't like taps to be turned on and off. When they aren't billing, the solution isn't simply to send them home ... When work is quiet over the summer, that’s a fantastic opportunity to pay attention to refreshing relationships and strengthening culture."

Sometimes we need time, and to be a bit bored, to make the effort to get to know our colleagues properly.  

I've always been intrigued by the practice in many European professional firms to take all their staff, not just the lawyers, away to a holiday resort for a couple of days of inspiring speeches and "appropriate" partying. I've given a few of these "inspiring" speeches myself and always feel a bit sorry for the junior employees required to sit in a hotel conference room listening to me. I imagine they are thinking about the beach bar and the cool waves just outside the window, and the informal team building that inevitably follows.