While I agree with the parent, it is still worthwhile to distinguish places that judge you based on those preferences or activities and those that simply encourage you to have them. Sometimes a small part of your value is getting others to be more relaxed, social, or just half-engaged until the idea they've been searching for all week comes tumbling out mid-pingpong swat. Granted, there are environments and people who function better with a clear boundary between work and play, but I bet that a large number of people who decry the mix would have second thoughts if play meant a game of chess, word association (pictionary? more UX departments could probably benefit...), cards, or whatever. I don't mean to say that tossing a football and playing chess are the same thing, but when not explicitly working they can still have positive effects. And hey, while the techno-blast-developer floor may be an annoying fad, I don't see anything wrong from a management perspective to find people who, in general, appreciate similar things. If you look closely you can see this very clearly in design studios (though I believe it applies to virtually anything creative, programming included)– people collaborating on a project while one listens to delta blues and the other Vivaldi will may have very altered perspectives, however fleeting, than two others who share a love of Phillip Glass.