The kind of happy hour you are describing is great and one of the things I miss about the office. Chilling with your tight knit team after a long day or a big release is great. I assume the GP is talking about the other sort of happy hour where it is a bigger crowd. I can’t stand those.
I've worked with teams that worked well together and got stuff done, at work. But never wanted to hang out after work with anyone. We all had different lives. Some single, some married, some with kids, some not, etc. At the end of the day everyone just wants to go home to his or her private life.
I prefer the larger team outings, as there are usually more people that I enjoy hanging out with than the small 4-7 people team that I work with. Also, larger team outings usually means more things to do because of the larger budget, so it could be a trip to a tourist attraction or activity camp, as opposed to just a meal when it is the smaller team.
