This is nothing more than general ramblings, but I would welcome comments from anyone who's been through something similar.
My team at work has been having a definite Rough Patch. We work on different projects so aren't co-workers in that sense, but we get a lot out of our team meetings every month or so, because huge and important cross-project issues only get aired there, simply because no-one else has a reason to talk to each other. So in general we are A Good Thing.
Two weeks ago we moved to the first floor of our office building. There was a slight shift in terms of desks, so now we all occupy 2 clusters of four desks, whereas previously, one guy was on a separate cluster, and - erm, that's about it.
The transformation has been incredible, I cannot work out what's happened. But having gone from a team full of simmering resentment, we are genuinely enjoying each other's company and having a laugh, basically.
Bizarre! But if you are ever suffering from a team mired in conflict, I can definitely recommend this. We have (mostly) identified a common 'enemy' at work recently, which of course has helped in the sense of 'my enemy's enemy is my friend' but I do think it's more than that.