[duckfang]

     - Social chatter.

I associate with my friends and a few groups I frequent. I've never felt the compunction to do this at work or with work people for the most part.

     - Making friends with old employees who I didn't know, and connecting with new employees.

Too true; there is this. I've a small handful of people whom I met at work and would call friends. But I usually try to maintain work as work - having friends tied up at a workplace can make for some really bad times when you leave or something happens. I think it's like a work-conditional friend.

     - Work Life separation (balance).

If you can master working on work stuff during the day, once you log out of $workchat and vpn, you're off. Set a schedule when you do everyday and work on being predictable.

     - Sense of belonging.. team outing, weekday after hours beer.

To me, "hanging out with the team" is definitely work. It has to be work-appropriate talk, on and on. That's enforced team-building activities. My sense of belonging is the paycheck I receive. I will seek elsewhere, not tied down by a job, to get a sense of belonging.

     - Intra company sports and games, and then teaming up with office colleagues to play inter company tournaments.

Again, for me, this seems to unhealthily attach a jobs' modus operandi to your own. In reality, unless you're the owner, you are as expendable as any other machine or cog. And I try not to intertwine work relationships with friends. Only rarely do those actually cross.

     - (Not me but others) Meeting potential dates

Yipes.

     - Office facilities for breakfast, lunch. 

My counter is that I have health issues that restrict my diet. At home, I can control exactly what I eat. At work, is what is provided. Its usually good, but sometimes I don't have anything. I would much rather have control of what I eat, by being in my kitchen cooking with my own foodstuffs.