Did I misunderstand how work friendships work?
Thank you to everyone who provided advice and your thoughts, I’m appreciative. Reading and reflecting on them !
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I’m autistic & adhd and left my job a while back. I had been at the organisation for just under four years and moved around a bit, but was now leaving for good. I wanted to have a leaving drinks and connect with people who I considered friends over my time there, so I sent out a goodbye email to all the colleagues I thought were friends or I had worked closely with and then sent an invitation to my drinks. The invitation gets logged in your team’s calendar so it’s not like it gets hidden under emails. Whilst there were really lovely people who made an effort to show up or email me back to say goodbye or exchange details, there was a fair amount of people who I would have considered friends who never responded to my goodbye message, acknowledged the invitation to drinks and didn’t show up. I feel pretty hurt by this as these are people who I met up for 1-1 lunches with, went on walks with and got coffee, and went to the pub after work with. I guess with these people we spoke a lot less in my last year there, as I moved to a different area of the business. However I felt like these people were a solid part of my time at that organisation and like there was genuine friendship even though we hadn’t spoken for a while. Did I misread the strength of these work based friendships/ is this typical? Maybe I didn’t feel or share the sentiment that these ‘friendships’ kinda decline over time if you don’t see each other or speak regularly.