Probably an unpopular opinion here, but, I went from a job were I was very close and good friends with my teammates to one where everyone just goes home after work. I miss having an actual connection to my team, being friends with my coworkers made work fun and bearable when things were hard. It also felt that we helped each other because we wanted to, not because we had to. We were also the team that made the most profit for the company.

That said, it also just happened naturally. The team was small and we did stuff like weekly lunches, board games night after work and videogames during lunch, but it was a thing WE started doing, not something that was scheduled or forced upon us and not something that was disruptive.

My current manager tries so hard to bring my now team together by scheduling stuff during working hours, but people don’t really want to and it is just awkward. It also is an extra interruption in my day that is already full of meetings and I just want to work in peace.

I think my point is that a lot of people underestimate how important having good friends and that “family” feeling at work can be, it increases productivity and happiness. Managers and HR know this but they try to force it on people, missing the point that it is something that has to happen naturally.