Companions are important. In the earlier part of my career as an environmental consultant I was assigned to work with other employees. Sometimes they came from other offices and I did not even know them. I learned to size people up real fast. I had a lady from Texas A&M with a degree in range management that could not tell sagebrush from any other shrub. I was assigned a crew of lesbians once from Santa Barbara that knew nothing about being in the outdoors. A guy from Wyoming once started a fight and I broke his nose. I had Paiute Indian from Nevada that begged me to go to Arizona to work on the Navajo Res. He picked a fight after 8 days of working hard and I put him on a bus.
Some of these people had little outdoor experience. We worked in remote areas often with no trails or roads. I had to worry about these people getting lost. We worked in all conditions. It was a struggle at times. Then I became an independent consultant and hired my own crews. Oh happy day. It changed everything. In my last corporate gig, I insisted on hiring my own crews. I used to hire my friends mostly. It changed everylting.