“They” say that as one gets older, especially going into retirement, that it is important to keep up social ties and interactions. Not only does it support good health, it provides others for participating in activities, and even to keep an eye on you – directly / consciously, or not.

Toward the end of my career, as a Project Manager, I supported a development team that worked a thousand miles away. So I didn’t go into the office to interact with them – after all, when I was on a call with them, they had no idea whether I was at my desk in my cubicle, or at my desk in my home office (and no, I didn’t use video).

But it isn’t like I went into the office to interact with others. I went in because I felt obligated to. At least until the pandemic sent everyone home and most of us realized that we could do our jobs and still be successful at it. But one of the small benefits of being in the office was interacting with others. Former teammates, people over the cube wall or across the aisle from me, people I see every day, or some that I had some interaction with for whatever other reason.

Yes, having conversations with some of these folks was rather enjoyable. Get to hear about their recipes, family, travels, or, God forbid, their job. Some folks I’ve spent quite a bit of time discussing this, that, and the other thing. Sharing experiences, common or otherwise. Whining about the same subject(s) – which usually was work. But these interactions also didn’t need to take place in person – sometimes they took place while waiting for people to join a conference call with many others, or when a call was over and there was still some time allotted and the question goes out “does anyone have anything to share?” sort of thing.

I think there are more people I enjoy working with than not. And it is true that I will miss some of those people. But that is while I hope to keep the out-of-office social interactions going, to share those similar topics with the non-office folks. And since I won’t be working, it will be important to have similarly-scheduled social interactions because, realistically, I won’t be able to socialize with co-workers… if I have no co-workers. Right?!!?