I've been doing WFH for years. Some of my collegues I've never met in person. I still consider many of them "work-friends" and I feel satisfied with my work/social factor. We are still in repeated regular meetings, even if they are tele/video conference. In fact, thinking back to the last 3 in person teams I've worked with, I enjoy my job and team more with all of us WFH than in office.

The issue is not that you can't or won't develop work-friends on a distributed team, its that those work-friends have difficulty translating to "not work friends" because they may be in a different state/country than you and can't come over for a pizza and beer afterwards.

> I've been doing WFH for years. Some of my collegues I've never met in person. I still consider many of them "work-friends" and I feel satisfied with my work/social factor. We are still in repeated regular meetings, even if they are tele/video conference.

IMHO, the difference between a "work friend" and a "friendly relationship with a colleague" is "do you frequently disengage from work to socialize together." For instance: taking breaks together to chit-chat. I can't see how someone you're in "repeated regular meetings" with could quality as a work friend, unless those meetings are not work related.

I’m the team lead and I’m on the phone with my team members at least half a day every day. We definitely chit chat and talk socially as a matter of course throughout the day.

> I’m the team lead and I’m on the phone with my team members at least half a day every day. We definitely chit chat and talk socially as a matter of course throughout the day.

I chit-chat with colleagues too, but they're not work-friends because it's usually in the context of doing work (e.g. a few minutes of friendly small talk before we get down to business).

A work-friend is someone you go hang out with just to hang out or talk with just to talk. The main difference with a friend-friend is that doesn't happen outside of the workplace or work events.