What makes collaborating with coworkers nicer than spending time with friends?

People have friends? Every person I’ve been friends with outside work has either moved away or stopped hanging out with me once I got a career and a family.

The only people who really “give me a chance” because I’m a little weird are people I work with because I’m useful I guess? So there’s time for me to grow on them.

My social life has definitely suffered since WFH. In fact the only people I see regularly are people I used to work with by inviting them to lunch.

I'm sorry to hear that. This is a real challenge. Among my circles, work and otherwise, there's strong non work connections, like different circles that happen to overlap im the company. Immigrant, religious, volunteer based, etc. But it makes sense that those in a circle might miss that others are not in a circle.

During the lockdowns our house was quite popular as like an underground Libertarian hangout spot for nerdy board game players and people who liked low stakes poker. I made friends with a former Magic the Gathering world champ because of that. I guess I do have friends they’re just the kind of people who don’t do much unless invited to something.

I guess that’s how MOST people are. A lot of people just want their socializing handed to them.

I agree, and I think it's not a generally good state, but if you're the one who organizes hangouts you're making a large positive impact

Well then we got sick and cockroaches invaded, and the house got dirtier and we got sicker until it all spiraled out of control. One or two people messaged us after that but nobody else has the ability to host regularly.

Hiring a housekeeper and an exterminator were in retrospect the best decisions we’ve made in the past year. It’s super important for both mental and physical health that you keep your house clean and free of pests folks!

>I guess that’s how MOST people are. A lot of people just want their socializing handed to them.

This was the main reason for people to go to church. The congregation gets a built-in social club, and the leaders get rich and the ability to control people's lives in various ways. Now that more and more people abandon religion, people are having to find other ways to socialize.