I miss that too. Some of my best friends are former co-workers. Especially from when I was younger and we spent nearly every waking hour together either at work or at a bar after work.
I don't miss it enough to want to go back to an office though!
The way I see it I go to work to exchange my skills for money. Often that involves working with others, but I’m not there to socialize and make friends. I have friends.
So given that outlook, WFH seems just kind of more “pure.” It’s distilled work, unencumbered by phony pseudo-friendships and awkward water cooler chit chat about sportsball. When we start a zoom meeting I can just launch right into the agenda without having to do that offtopic pre-meeting banter ritual. To me it’s work without waste. I feel like with WFH I get more done per hour and that means more time for me to do what I enjoy: things that aren’t work.
I also have friends, but I rarely see them on workdays. Having other people around me on those days feels good, I don't like being alone for several days. I totally can do and have done that, but I prefer to not be alone.
Additionally, my colleagues and I share big parts of our life: every damn workday. None of my friends are capable of talking as long and nuanced about things happening at my workplace.
They don't really want to hear emotional rants about bullshit projects because they have no way to relate to those feelings.
But I want to rant about bullshit projects and thankfully, I have colleagues that like hearing such rants from time to time, as they totally can relate.
When I am mad about some shit, start talking about it and they ask "oh, was that XY who said that?" and it totally was XY, that is comforting.
I have friends, yes, and I don't need to meet my colleagues after work. But I still have healthy social relationships to them.
Man, i have different friends than you. I have listened to a friend rant for 3 hours about a BS project at a company I haven't worked at. Another friend rant over weeks and I wasn't even in the same industry.
I talk to my friends during the day. I'm lucky that we're all remote, but honestly even my in office family members can chat sometimes at work.
When I was in the office, I rarely connected with coworkers. I was often the youngest and/or just not in the same life stage. I could exchange pleasantries and that was about it. I have a grand total of 2 friends from work after over a decade of work across several companies. My social life is still vibrant outside of that.
I don't even understand where people think you can't connect to peolle WTH. I just had an hour long chat with a coworker about nothing at all. Sometimes people just need to chat about nonsense and VC people. Peoppe seem to be afraid of that, but I don't see why. We can work and talk. We did it in the office.
So when you've earned your f-u money you stop showing up for work?
That's not what we see in practice. Most people with a sudden windfall (stocks, lottery winnings etc.) keeps showing up for work. Because how else would you stay socially meaningful in our society? Nobody really wants to sit at a beach sipping drinks the rest of their life, accomplishing nothing.
There is clearly a social aspect of work, at least for the majority that we can call socially functional. And it's at least as important as getting paid. Work is also a social role, and it hurts many people if they are left out of it. It's not easy.
Absolutely, there are plenty of ways to be social, on my terms, with the people I choose. If I didn’t have to trade my time for money there are plenty of ways I can fill my days without corporate bullshit.
I don't miss it enough to want to go back to an office though!