Earlier quoted context omitted.
Couldn't agree more. Offices are needed for "controlling" reasons. Bosses and middle manager types want to make sure you are around doing your thing. You also need to realize that offices are not made to be productive but are made so that people can escape their daily life: Kids at home, or wife that you don't want to see anymore. Just check all the people with kids that cannot wait to go back to the office.
That’s so cynical. Offices are made to be productive, including by aggregating everyone into one physical place and fitting it out with functional, ergonomic and productive equipment — beyond your desk, it also includes whiteboards, meeting rooms, and even the water cooler. It’s also a place of team and social bonding. Am I the only one that misses drinks with my colleagues, or dinner at a local restaurant after work…
Most companies I've worked at everyone just goes home after work, and there was little camaraderie. People generally didn't even grab lunch together, just ate at their desks. At every job I've had there are at most 2-3 people I continue to stay in contact with afterwards. At some companies there were maybe monthly happy hours, which at some companies were fun, but that would basically the extent of it. I did really enjoy participating on one office's sports teams, but only big companies have that.
Office life certainly would have been way more enjoyable if I had more friends in the office, but the atmosphere at most of the companies I worked at just wasn't conducive to that. I wonder if I just had bad luck in working at companies with little social atmosphere, or if my experience is the norm.
I think that a big reason for this is the politically correct nature of the office. In university for example you can say whatever the hell you want, so one can more freely express themselves and find their group. But in offices, you're expected to exhibit professionalism and not offend anyone. So basically you can't talk about politics or anything controversial - basically anything actually interesting, limiting conversation to boring small-talk and making it hard to make real connections/friends. I mean if I spoke anything I just wrote about in an office that'd be sacrilege and I'd probably be fired the next week.