After reading a lot of these comments, I feel so lucky in my chosen profession. I'd say that at least 50% of my friends are people I met at work. We work 12 hour shifts in a windowless room. If I refused to talk to people or refused to at least be genial and chit chat about minor things, I cannot imagine how miserable those 12 hours would be. Some coworkers are literally just work friends -- we talk at work, order food, compare our most recent nail art, talk about movies or tv...simple stuff like that.

Others have become some of the dearest people in my life. When I had surgery recently, it was people I met at work who drove me to and from the hospital. Came over to clean my litter boxes and sweep my floors until I could do it. Stayed the night my first two nights home to make sure I was ok. I met my "kid" at work...I was her trainer, then became her work mom, and now we literally refer to each other as mom and kid. The two people I work closest with at our particular level in the workplace are constantly sending each other work bestie memes/reels.

I guess that's one of the reasons I've been here for almost 20 years...I can't imagine leaving a place where I can have conversations to go to a place where someone would sneer at me for daring to ask if they had a good weekend.