[viraptor]

> It's hard to ping a colleague for some chit-chat.

Try it. Some may not be interested but others will be. With a dozen engineers at your work, at least one will feel in a similar way to you, so you can help each other.

Or look for a smaller coworking space in your area, even if it's for one day a week. They're fun social places. (At least the small local ones are - not the big vc funded work spaces)

[seanp2k2]

We’ve had decent success scheduling virtual team lunches and happy hours. We have a few opportunities per week on my team / org to just kinda hang out and not necessarily talk about work. Most people don’t show up regularly but we have a small regular group and the less-frequent visitors drop in every few sessions. I get that some people would rather just do the work, and it’s honestly optional, but some of us do enjoy it as a chance to connect.