Finding the link between corporate culture and these various employer metrics was not easy. Corporate culture is complex, and academic research into the effects of happy hour on worker productivity are (surprisingly) sparse.

Yet psychologists are quite clear about one thing: human beings grow in connection with others. This was precisely the research topic that Jane E. Dutton and Emily Heaphy from the Harvard Business Review tackled. They argued that people could take control over their learning at work by prioritizing “high-quality connections,” in which people “feel positive regard, mutuality, and vitality.” As a result of having these high-quality connections, “our thinking is broadened, we absorb knowledge more quickly, our action repertoire is expanded, and we are more engaged, playful, open, and resilient in the face of setbacks.” In contrast, low-quality connections create “feelings of inadequacy, defensiveness, and lack of safety [which] undercut growth possibilities.” Backed by their research, Dutton and Heaphy recommend eight different ways that people can grow and improve through such high-quality connections, including creating an after-hours working group to learn new skills together, and designing an instructional course within one’s work group.

In another study on corporate culture’s impact on workers in the UAE, researchers concluded that “corporate culture can collectively bind and produce uniformity even amongst diverse members of the organization, and, accordingly, [it] enhances dedication and employee efficiency and effectiveness.” Furthermore, they found that corporate culture “indeed has a notable influence on employees’ performance, attitudes, behavior, and productivity,” and that “the degree to which an employee adjusts to the corporate culture and integrates with it will significantly influence his or her performance.”

Corporate culture even seems to have a positive effect on a company’s bottom line. According to a study from Walden University, a “lack of effective organizational culture and poor cultural integration in the corporate group affect organizational performance and decrease shareholders return.”

Thus, research seems to indicate that strong corporate culture and high-quality connections between workers can, in fact, improve employee productivity, performance, and engagement. So does this mean that everyone should be going out for drinks and booking off time for a corporate-sponsored retreat to Escape From The 6?

Not quite.

As alluded to earlier, the newest generation of workers have been leading the charge against socializing outside of work hours, as reported by the NeuroLeadership Institute. Amongst these younger workers, there is a push to set clear and defined boundaries between work and home. One influencer on TikTok even claimed that her company gave her an ultimatum to socialize with her coworkers after hours or get fired, so she decided to quit.

It’s not just Gen Z, either, though they are certainly the most vocal amongst this group. In a survey of 1000 workers of various ages, respondents ranked Relationships with Coworkers to be the least important of 14 different factors contributing to their job satisfaction. The most important factors were, predictably, Compensation and Work-Life Balance.

Several factors appear to be contributing to this anti-social workplace trend. For starters, high turnover rates make it “less worthwhile to socialize and get to know [one’s] coworkers.” It can be incredibly demotivating to work hard building friendships and relationships in the office, only for a quarter of the workforce to leave after 1 year, and over half of the workforce to leave after 3 years. Furthermore, the pandemic had a huge impact on workers’ attitudes and priorities. People got used to working remotely and not having to interact with their coworkers, and people aren’t eager to return to the days in which work dominated their every waking moment. One 53-year-old worker put it best when they told The Wall Street Journal, “I don’t want to put in eight, nine, 10 hours and go out and have a beer — and talk about work for another four hours.”

However, like unappealing vegetables packed with vital nutrients, the social interaction that today’s workers are desperately trying to avoid can have incredibly positive effects on workers and the firm as a whole. Beyond the aforementioned benefits of a strong corporate culture, the team at NeuroLeadership Institute also cited several benefits of socialization at work, such as building social capital, improving teamwork skills, and creating opportunities for networking which can advance one’s career within their firm. In fact, research by the NLI team shows that “small talk enhances employees’ daily positive social emotions,” and “people who have workplace friends are more likely to be satisfied with their employment and less likely to look for another job.”

The key distinction seems to lie in whether employees are nudged towards workplace socialization, or forced into it. An article from 365 Management Solutions took a look at the negative impacts of such forced team building, which “can be problematic because employees perceive the activities as insincere, irrelevant, or contrived, which can negatively impact their morale and productivity.” Some of the consequences of forced team building can be particularly disastrous, such as the undermining of autonomy and trust, the exacerbation of workplace stress, and severe disruption of work-life balance. To alleviate these effects, 365 Management Solutions suggests implementing voluntary participation, flexible scheduling, virtual alternatives, and inclusivity into team-building activities. Meanwhile, the NLI team recommends making socialization events take place during work hours, and cutting alcohol out of these events due to the various “religious, cultural, personal, or health reasons” that make many workers choose not to drink.

Rather than adhering to this advice and focusing on building corporate culture the right way, however, firms seem preoccupied with dragging employees back into the office. Forbes reports that big-name companies like UPS, Boeing, and JPMorgan Chase are enforcing return-to-office (RTO) mandates in an attempt to “boost collaboration, maintain company culture, and increase productivity.” CEOs believe that employees aren’t being as productive at home due to the “Green Status Effect,” in which they always portray an “active” online status despite not actually being at their computers. While 64% of remote workers have admitted to engaging in this behavior, workers also feel equally pressured to “demonstrate productivity” at the office, often “walking around the office just to be seen,” or “adjust[ing] their schedules to arrive earlier or leave later than their managers.” Meanwhile, data does not seem to indicate that in-person work is more productive than remote work as CEOs tend to believe, and many employees greatly prefer remote work due to how it allows them to help with family duties and avoid laborious daily commutes.

There is also a more nefarious side to these RTO mandates, as many executives have admitted to using them in hopes of encouraging voluntary turnover. So far, this tactic seems to be working, as “8 in 10 employers have lost talent to return-to-office mandates.”