[bodge5000]

Couldn't agree more. I remember when I was working in an office and I'd be invited out to social events with my colleagues outside of work, to the pub or whatever, and I almost always turned it down. I got on really well with them, but just being in the office used up my social energy.

When I started working from home, the situation flipped. Suddenly I was the one often organising these social trips, because my social energy was no longer being used (as much anyway, I was still talking to people regularly, possibly even more so). Working in the office was convenient, I could fill my social needs without even doing anything, but it wasn't real. I wasn't actually socialising with people or seeing friends, I was just sitting near people for 8 hours and that tricked my brain into filling that bar.

Personally, I decided I'd rather than inconvenient truth than a convenient lie. Though real socialisation is a lot more difficult, it's also a lot more fulfilling.

Not saying this is the case for everyone certainly, but that's how it's been for me.