Relationships are really important outside the business setting too. Often much more important.

Something that a lot of people in the business setting don't seem to understand.

My work friends are just that... work friends. I have to hide large swaths of my personal life from them and they don't usually stick around outside work. Work relationships suck.

Sure. OTOH, you don’t have to be either an Aspie or a Business A-Player Career Superhero to give a pragmatic nod to the fact that work is where many people, perhaps most, spend their waking hours. It’s only natural and eminently human that for a lot of them, that’s where their friendships and relationships will form and play out.

In my opinion, it’s all the more so if they live in one of the many nondescript suburban places of which Middle America comprises. Having little to come home to or go out to, with our bankrupt concept of civic space and the public realm, it’s all the more likely many of us will unconsciously look to work as the locus of social possibility. It’s not because we want to, it’s just the shape of the situation.

Totally agree. In my previous job our project team (Program Manager + project engineer, me) flies out to our biggest vendor every month to discuss production issues and development updates. This face time is critical in building the strong relationships and has proven its worth when prioritization or escalation is needed but not covered explicitly in the contract.

We grasp it, but we went into this career so that we would have to do the bare minimum of it.