A little bit of sympathy goes a long way. Creating a culture of care can be so easy when you realize how much power it creates for you and your fellow workers in the workplace. Care radically, Fellow Workers!
“Look, you’re a nice guy, but your political views that you express without solicitation are incredibly problematic and frankly I’d rather not be within the same society as you”
It’s a lot to ask someone to drop into a group of 4+ friends of 10+ years and just hit the ground running. It takes a lot of effort from everyone involved. I’m for it but it’s not as simple as one might assume.
I have a dozen friends or so that I keep in regular contact with (to varying degrees). That's plenty for me. I'm open to new friends but I am not an active "friend collector" like some people seem to be. Some super extroverted people I know seem to use it to keep score or something. I tend to drift away from that type of person, and then hope they take the hint. My least favorite are the ones you haven't heard from in years and then they text you out of the blue wanting to reconnect. I don't ghost them, but I do duck out of it. They're just bored and being a pest.
Sounds about right. that doesn't mean we can't banter at work and be friendly with each other - it just doesn't necessarily transfer into the rest of our lives, right?
Yup. I have friends at work. We don't really hang out after work or anything. Some of us do regularly text each other outside of work. Mostly jokes and memes, though sometimes other topics.
While I don't look at my job as a social outlet or meet up place, I do think it's good to be sociable and friendly at work. Of course there are a few snake-in-the-grass types at work that I maintain distance from. Professional detachment type of thing.