I thought many companies had weekly "chit-chat" meetings over video chat for just hanging around and doing nothing ? My place doesn't have it and we are not a place that welcomes or listens to any kind of ideas so they never cared about that.

Often these are poorly attended, for better or worse the office forces people together for a set period of time. Even out of boredom some folks will come up with ideas, when at home you can just cruise HN or do something else entirely.