It seems a lot of people absolutely despise the idea of spending any of their free time with their coworkers, even something as measly as a lunch break that you're basically stuck at work for anyways. I could understand it if your coworkers were particularly nasty to you or something like that, but it seems that a lot of people have fine relationships with their coworkers and still would rather sit in a car alone to eat lunch rather than having a conversation at a table or go home after work and watch TV rather than get a beer or coffee.
I can understand people want to hide or whatever, but why is that such a widespread phenomenon now? It wasn't always like that as I understand. From a lot of what I've read and heard, fairly intimate relationships between coworkers were much more common. It seems like if we're talking about the general breakdown of society or the decay of the labor movement, this is an obvious symptom that doesn't seem to have anyone's attention. So what gives?
I think attitudes towards work are shifting and more people want to be firm with boundaries between work life and personal life, and they see their coworkers as part of "work life"
But what is driving that attitude shift? People wouldn't just spontaneously decide they felt that way for no reason.
Generational gap is part of it I'd reckon. I can just talk to my friends on my phone or watch something online, I don't have coworkers as my only option of lunch entertainment.
Company 'loyalty' is also less effective than jumping ship to a different employer every 2-3 years so intra-company networking is less useful.
I thought it might have something to do with the kids and their damned smartphones :grillman: That's a good point about job hopping too.
Back in the day workers had to stick together to get any of their interests met. Now, they can easily divide everyone because you promise one worker an extra sick day. Many people don’t play that game. Maybe they assume others still do. But regardless, most are just sick and tired of anything work related, good or bad.