3 ms·

I wholeheartedly disagree with this. Socialization is not the primary point of work , I very much hope I'm able to work remote forever after the pandemic ends

I wholeheartedly disagree with this. Socialization is not the primary point of work , I very much hope I'm able to work remote forever after the pandemic ends. I've been able to save an insane amount of money these last few months, and I don't want to give that up so I can talk smack at the water cooler. If you want to socialize go to a concert, go to a Meetup Group. With millions of people facing eviction, seems rather childish to complain that you miss the camaraderie of the office.

kar5pt 6y ago
Maybe socialization shouldn't be the point of work, but it serves that purpose for a lot of people. Social capital has been declining since the 60's (see Robert Putnam's work) and work is one of the few places left where people can consistently see the same people everyday and form relationships in a low-pressure manner. The options you gave for socialization aren't great for everyone. Concerts are expensive and aren't a great way to meet people if you're alone and not every place has many meetups to chose from. The current division we have between socialization/hobbies and work is a relatively recent phenomena, for most of history people lived with the same people that they worked with. People made friends by living in communal, coworking scenarios where there wasn't so much pressure to go to social events and "meet people" in the acute, high-pressure fashion that we have today. I think It'd be nice if we could get closer to that. Modern work probably won't fulfill that purpose for a number of reasons, but I think we need to acknowledge from looking at the statistics on loneliness and isolation that meetups/bars/concerts/other acute social events aren't cutting it for a large percentage of the (US) population.
- offtop5 6y ago
  Maybe we need to develop new spaces? With the gig economy I don't see us getting to socialize all that much at work anymore.

kar5pt 6y ago

Maybe socialization shouldn't be the point of work, but it serves that purpose for a lot of people. Social capital has been declining since the 60's (see Robert Putnam's work) and work is one of the few places left where people can consistently see the same people everyday and form relationships in a low-pressure manner. The options you gave for socialization aren't great for everyone. Concerts are expensive and aren't a great way to meet people if you're alone and not every place has many meetups to chose from. The current division we have between socialization/hobbies and work is a relatively recent phenomena, for most of history people lived with the same people that they worked with. People made friends by living in communal, coworking scenarios where there wasn't so much pressure to go to social events and "meet people" in the acute, high-pressure fashion that we have today. I think It'd be nice if we could get closer to that. Modern work probably won't fulfill that purpose for a number of reasons, but I think we need to acknowledge from looking at the statistics on loneliness and isolation that meetups/bars/concerts/other acute social events aren't cutting it for a large percentage of the (US) population.

offtop5 6y ago
Maybe we need to develop new spaces? With the gig economy I don't see us getting to socialize all that much at work anymore.