Although our section within the department is pretty close knit, I only go out socially with the ones closer to my age. I'm the youngest one here (2
so I go out with the 30s and 40s year olds. They are close enough to my age that we can still find some things in common. And even though they all have kids and I don't, I still like to listen to their interesting kid stories.
I think people who don't make friendships at work are missing out on a lot. When we were unsure of our jobs because of the layoffs, we went to each other for support. When we found out we had survived the layoffs, we celebrated together. I don't think I could have done these things with my friends outside of work. I would have felt I was "burdening" them with my problems and that they wouldn't be able to relate as well as those who were going through the same thing as I was.
We still talk about work sometimes (except the confidential stuff) but we don't talk about social stuff at work. We have an agreement that whatever happens when we are out socially is not to be talked about at work in case one of us is embarrassed to talk about our social lives at work. We don't tarnish our professional images by telling so and so that "Jill" is a bad driver. They don't need to know that, it would only make "Jill" feel bad. But we still tease her about it when we are out together and she's okay with that because it's just us women.
Anyway, that's how I feel. I value my friendships from work.
