Hikikomori vibes do make sense, but there’s a caveat: Work and social life are not the same thing.

Companies showed their ignorance of this when the political response to Covid switched to downplay mode and companies tried to lure people back with pizza and games. The cringe factor there is extreme.

I understand my colleagues. I empathise with them. I work with them effectively and in general I bear them. But like them? God no. They’re not my friends.

I am no hermit. I have a wife and kid, and would trade spending time with them them every morning and evening over any job on the planet. When I commuted I’d leave before they wake up and get home after my kid goes to sleep - that, to me, is the definition of an isolated existence.