> FWIW, the missing element in this framing is real, substantive community. Not conversational or ephemeral community like you find online, but the kind of subs

> FWIW, the missing element in this framing is real, substantive community. Not conversational or ephemeral community like you find online, but the kind of substantive community that engenders a network of mutual support. This is one aspect of US' stereotypical work culture that always caught my attention: the way that work permeates in employees' personal lives. Now I'm starting to see it the other way around: a lot of people simply do not have a social life, and work is used to fill that gap. That would also explain chronic overworking. Why would anyone want to leave their job at 5PM when all they can do is be alone with their lonely thoughts? At least back at work they have people who are contractually forced to acknowledge their existence. A few years ago someone told me a former team member of theirs committed suicide in the office, and was found the next day by other employees hanging from the ceiling. I couldn't understand why anyone would do such a thing, and specially at their workplace. Perhaps that was the only place they had in their lives and where they knew someone they knew would find them. Also a few years ago, when I switch jobs the first piece of office gossip I was told was how an employee tried to commit suicide by jumping off the building once he heard the news he was being fired. Your career in general and your job in particular plays a critical role in your life, but if that's all you have then you are an economic downturn away from finding yourself at the bottom of a very deep pit.