Thanksgiving’s behind us. The holidays and the New Year are straight ahead…

It got us thinking about togetherness—and how different it feels at work these days. Culture used to happen almost by accident. You’d grab lunch with a coworker. Stay late and talk about something unrelated to the project. Those small moments added up to trust, camaraderie, and belonging.

The hard cut

Now, more people draw a clear line between work and personal life. And that’s fair (boundaries matter after all). But it also means we’ve lost some of the casual overlap where relationships used to form. Many people want connection but hesitate to ask for it. We overthink the invite, the coffee, the after-work drink. Meanwhile, proximity—the simple act of being in the same room—does what a dozen Slack channels can’t: it makes work feel real.

The proximity problem

In-person work has become a lightning rod. Some argue it’s the key to rebuilding connection. Others see it as a regression—a demand to trade flexibility for facetime. Anticlimatically, the truth likely sits square in the middle. The office isn’t the problem (and it never was). Rather, clear expectations are what stands between you and a strong culture. Why go in if being physically present means extending your workday into your living room later that night? That’s not connection. That’s overreach.

Culture is human, not corporate

Culture doesn’t live in an employee handbook—it lives in people. Presence has to mean something. Bringing people together has to have a clear exchange of value. Not to make culture sound so transactional, but people can feel when something is forced and not worth their time. It’s palpable. Remember the performative togetherness of the early Pandemic days? Every coffee chat was all presence, no purpose. With culture obviously suffering at the hands of a virtual-first workforce, the answer is more complex than going back to the office. Time together can’t just replicate what we already do on-screen—it has to do more. Leaders can help by creating those moments of genuine connection that don’t feel forced. 

Intentional time beats forced time

Time together only works when it has a purpose. People don’t need elaborate events or manufactured fun—they need clarity. Ask:

• Why are we gathering? 
• What are we trying to strengthen?
• What result are we hoping for?

This isn’t about becoming best friends. Google’s Project Aristotle reminded us of something simple: teams don’t succeed because everyone likes each other—they succeed because people feel psychologically safe. And psychological safety is much harder to build when every interaction is filtered through a screen.

So if leaders want connection, the question becomes: what are we giving people when we bring them together that they can’t get in isolation?

Culture is strategy

As we move into the new year, the strongest cultures won’t be the ones with the best perks or policies—they’ll be the ones that feel most human.

Reach out to info@snpnet.com to explore strategies that make a real impact!