The author keeps coming up with different excuses like having dogs or being busy or cooking their own dinners, but it’s not that complicated. Covid and post-covid showed people how good life is when they have more time to themselves, and now they’re putting up a barrier between the biggest time sink of their lives: work.

For decades, an unspoken rule of office culture has been that much of work happens outside the 9-to-5 window. Getting ahead often requires being known outside the building and having organizational allies—the type of networking that’s helped by showing up for dinner with the boss and getting relaxed facetime with co-workers at happy hours

Changing that is healthy. I can understand making friends with coworkers, but this kind of schmoozing is exhausting.

If I schmooze, it’s going to be on company time.