> But...work friends aren't friends. It's very rare to stay in touch if you change jobs
The exact same holds for other situational friendships. Stop drinking, stop going to church, get injured and stop playing sport, and see how long those friendships last. That doesn't make them any less real.
The connections you have with work friends from previous jobs persist; you can catch up about old faces, industry and workplace goings on, and career progression among people who understand the situation intimately.
But building connections over more permanent parts of yourself will last more than something that is likely to change every couple of years. Yes, losing the thing you connected over is going to make it so only the best friendships last, but that's just it, you can lose work just like you can everything else. Do people who -don't- go to a bar regularly to drink necessarily have limited social lives? No. Well, same with work.
Work actually makes it -harder- to really connect with people. The norm is to keep personal stuff personal; you don't bring up the difficulties you're having with your SO, and they don't give you advice or commiserate.
The exact same holds for other situational friendships. Stop drinking, stop going to church, get injured and stop playing sport, and see how long those friendships last. That doesn't make them any less real.
The connections you have with work friends from previous jobs persist; you can catch up about old faces, industry and workplace goings on, and career progression among people who understand the situation intimately.