[mulmen]

Why should I seek out personal relationships with my coworkers? What relevance does their personal life have on work? What business is it of theirs what I do in my own time? We’re all job hopping to chase salary anyway. Everything in business is ephemeral and shallow. Meaningful relationships happen in the real world, not the office.

[Agingcoder]

I want to build relationships with my coworkers because it makes my life better - I like being around people. It also creates strong feelings of trust, which then improves work quality of life, and therefore my work. Furthermore, many people at work don’t treat people they don’t have a relationship with in the same manner as someone they know.

People’s personal life and people being interested in you is just that : people. Most people do this naturally for the reasons stated above.

Not everyone is job hopping, and I’ve made plenty of friends in the office.

[consteval]

Right, but you can do this outside of work without any of the downsides (i.e. reduced salary, sexual harassment and other HR type complaints, no forced time together).

You're paying by not job hopping, and your friends aren't that deep of friends. You bet your ass you can get into hot water with them when you have the corporate power structure standing in between.

I don't know why someone would be content taking the risks and downsides of corporate America into their personal relationships. I'd rather gain more time, by working from home, and then using that time to make friendships. And then also hop around and make a bunch of money without guilt.

[Agingcoder]

I don’t live in the US .

In my case I’ve made lifelong friends in the office - we’ve had different experiences in our respective jobs.