A lot of us who found ourselves working from home realized that while we were friendly with a lot of workmates, we weren't actually friends with them. We weren't close enough to them and that couldn't actually open up about our fears, our struggles, or our needs.<p>It led to us realizing that at an emotional level, we didn't have as many or possibly any one that we could truly call a friend - no one that would help you move, or visit you at the hospital, or watch your kids in an emergency.<p>In that realization, so many people decided to be more deliberate about who they made friends with and how to be vulnerable. This certainly plays into my decision to keep working from home. I have much healthier friendships, and a group of people who I can call true friends and who support me now. Looking back, it was pretty dumb of me to confuse that with work, but I'll cut myself some slack - I'm a much different person now.<p>One last point. If I had to guess, a lot of C-suite and VP-level folks who are calling for a return to the office probably made this same mistake, but have it a lot worse. Their inability to set personal-work boundaries on one hand led to their success, but also a realization that they may have no real friends and no time to make them. The incentives to conflate work-relationships with friendship have to be much more powerful at that level.