It is not just remote work either - I've noticed a trend in my work where although I work in an open plan office surrounded by people, my teams are increasingl

It is not just remote work either - I've noticed a trend in my work where although I work in an open plan office surrounded by people, my teams are increasingly "global" which means that usually there is 1 team member on their own in each office. Although I am surrounded by people, since you're not working with these other people, and/or there are desk moves every 3 months or so as teams are growing, you only ever end up with very superficial "friendships"/social interactions. "Hello" "How was your weekend" "Which team are you on?" "I am on this team" etc etc. You're just doing it out of politeness really, then in a month or two they'll move on to another team/office or there will be another desk move and you're back to square one, surrounded by strangers. It is not unusual for me to go a whole day in an office surrounded by hundreds of coworkers without physically saying anything to anyone apart from "thanks" for holding open the door. It is extremely isolating.