[StavrosK]

This was my impression as well. "I don't work with people I wouldn't invite for coffee"? I don't need my coworkers to be my friends (although it's definitely great if it happens), I just need them to be professional and good at what they do.

[noarchy]

I've seen this happen in orgs where co-workers are expected to have lunch together, and to go out for drinks after work. Is there something wrong with wanting to have some alone time during lunch, and get away from work for a short time? How about just wanting to go home, and maybe spend time with your family after work? You see your colleagues more than you see your family already, so why make the imbalance even worse?

[yulaow]

I disagree strongly. I saw time over time what happens to the team when even just a single (new) coworker starts to act hostile, ruins the general mood or just doesn't click with the way the rest of the team interacts... and it can really distrupt the collaboration effort in a deep but hard to notice way.

[astura]

Yet that person can still be an incredibly pleasant person to get coffee with. OTOH, you can have absolutely nothing in common with someone and even disagree with their life philosophy on a fundamental level yet they can be a perfectly fine person to work with.

"We are friends outside of a work setting" just doesn't correlate to "we work well together." What "we work well together" correlates to is actually "they are professional and respectful, they can do their job, and they have a good work ethic."

[emerongi]

Has nothing to do with inviting someone to a coffee. A person can be pleasant to work with and not a great conversationalist. Plus many assholes are not assholes on the surface anyway.