Using the ol' quadrant construct, I think we can create 4 categories of folks with respect to such activity: 1 | 2 ----- 3 | 4 Above the line are folks

Using the ol' quadrant construct, I think we can create 4 categories of folks with respect to such activity: 1 | 2 ----- 3 | 4 Above the line are folks who genuinely are open to friendship beyond work, below are folks are are not. To the left are folks whose jobs encourage or require this extracurricular fun, to the right are folks whose jobs do not. If you're a #1, things are great! Work is fun AND you're making new friends! If you're a #2, things are ok, Work is work, and you have hobbies and activities outside of work too. You might wish you were in category #1 though. If you're a #3, your job is causing undue stress and misery. You're having your arm twisted to do things you don't want to, perhaps due to outside commitments or maybe just lack of interest. If you're a #4, there's mutual respect in the workplace and that's enough. I guess the traditional view is that boring old companies led to people in categories #2 and #4. But then some companies declared themselves "fun" and set people up to be in categories #1 or #3. I don't see why it's so hard to arrange fun activities, while making it clear there's absolutely no pressure, and get people into categories #1 and #4.