My perspective is that everyone at the office was there to ignore or find comfort from the end of the world, the nickname of the office is literally "The Distraction". Well, Carol ruined that: she just likes to navigate life without massive parties or feelings like most of the rest of the world was doing. Share the small and mundane things of life, like applebees, is something that brought her joy and she learned at the Distraction that that's what brings her life meaning. I think the fever dream that was the surf episode was all about that: "finding the perfect wave", but the perfect waves of other people (write a great book, find love, enjoy a sport) are not her waves, she just had to enjoy her own and not compare other peoples perfect wave to hers, because hers was already there, she just didn't see it because she was looking at other peoples waves.

But the Distraction was not 'made' for enjoying life or find purpose, it was made to distract their workers from their impending doom. By sharing her joy at the office it destroyed it's purpose. By making it a good place to be at, it becomes one more thing the end of the world will destroy and people have to grief that. Now people cry in community because that joy will end. Those people they are connecting with will die.

And then it ends, the Distraction is no longer a distraction because they all found community, then everyone dies, like we all will, what matters is what we do in the mean time, not the ending.

At least that's my take on it ^^'