I have a few people that I keep up with outside work, but for me there's a couple of things I've learned the hard way, and one thing that I learned watching my

I have a few people that I keep up with outside work, but for me there's a couple of things I've learned the hard way, and one thing that I learned watching my parents' generation learn the hard way. I'm pushing 50, so my parents are boomers. While they had a much easier ride than their children and grandchildren in many ways, one thing that buggered a lot of them in the 80s was that the idea of long-term employment was brutally ripped away. People who had worked at the same firm for 20 or 30 years were unceremoniously dumped out of work by Chainsaw Al Dunlap inspired gutting of companies; many of those people had their personal relationships revolve around work as well as their professional life, and were kicked in the guts twice by the process, losing their social circle at the same time as the upheval of their financial lives. Being dependent on your employer for your social circle, your income, and your professional development is a terrible thing. Secondly, personally, if I hang out with people I work with, I have a hard time talking about stuff that's not work. It's not healthy for me, and probably tedious for them (unless they suffer from the same problem). We need to breathe. Rehashing the working day in your evenings and weekends is not a way to decompress. Others may be different, but I am happier if I spend my evening talking about, say, the points in common of Villneuve's Duke Leto and Cornwell's Arthur, rather than which person is being an annoying arsehole.