Why so cynical? Some of my best friends and favorite people are people who I initially met as random coworkers.

You just don’t require 40 weeks in an office to make friends. You can, and should, go to social gatherings outside of work. Including ones where you’re exclusively surrounded by complete strangers.

Friendships often form out of shared experiences. Work is one kind of shared experience. So is joining a club, or going to a concert.

I think a lot of people don’t do those things, because they’re so tired from work. Which is understandable, but then you have to make friends at work. And that’s really not ideal.

I'm sure there are great friendships among slaves and prisoners too, that doesn't mean you should be thankful to be one.

You can schlep to the office every day and contort yourself into a freedom mindset and I'll work remote with my natural mindset. We can both be happy.

I have a remote job. I get to have this one because I made contacts at a previous job. Good luck in the job market correction.

me too, but its the vast minority of all companies i have been in the past 35 years. i don't want to sit in a room or even building with the rest of the drones of whom i have no clue what they are doing there expect burning money and wasting time of others.

but sure there are enough exceptions to turn up once in a blue moon to have drinks with the new peeps who seem nice on slack.

Whats cynical about it? You work with people who you have befriended, probably because you have the sort of personality where that works.

Not everyone is like that. It's not cynicism but a fact of life that some people do not get on with people you find in tech companies, IT departments, offices, etc or do not enjoy the environment.

You should examine your own narrow view of this and realize that there are many types of people out there other than people like you. That someone else experiences life in a different way isn't a personal failing.

My view is narrow, yet you're siding with OP who is categorically defining team building activities, company BBQs, pizza days, etc as nonsense? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

> Meanwhile some of them have personal lives so bad or they're so afraid of being alone that they genuinely do like it.

One of the definitions of cynical is "bitterly or sneeringly distrustful, contemptuous, or pessimistic". I'm not trying to argue that my way is the only way, I'm just pointing out that some people (me) have fulfilling personal lives AND enjoy chit-chatting with coworkers in-person sometimes.

I think we can all agree that remote work is great for some people. And we should be able to agree that some people genuinely enjoy things about working in an office too.