Most of the responses here seem to be focused around "your social fulfillment should be _completely_ separate from work". I've found this attitude to be very limiting. I don't know any of my current coworkers well at all -- they're all just 2D heads on screens and avatars in text chat. This definitely affects my work, compared to the _very same company_ pre-pandemic. Maybe for some people, the ability to work with others doesn't depend at all on being friendly with those people, but I personally find that important. Being able to grab ad-hoc lunch with coworkers -- including a walk to/from wherever, eating in a common space, talking about things other than work -- really helped strengthen the culture and the relationships between folks. Ditto Friday beers after work -- or going out after. Some coworkers can be coworkers _and_ friends.

Maybe this is different for folks with families (those who generally didn't hang out after work even pre-pandemic -- no judgment there), but for some of us more social single folks, I'm surprised at the vitriol here from people who don't seem to understand us at all. Isn't there some middle ground here? I definitely don't miss being _forced_ to go to work (sick coworkers spreading flu around the office, loud talkers interrupting focus time, etc) but on the flip side why are people so happy to be _forced_ to never interact with people?