I have never been excluded but I also rarely engage in social activities with co workers. When I was in college working restaurant and other part time jobs I socialized. For any professional job, including the US Army I avoid work social events.

I find it causes to much bullshit. It is a fine line of maintaining good relationships with co workers and keeping them at arms length.

Yes, but I’m more than a decade older than them. I’d like to be invited but I understand why I’m not. I probably wouldn’t be able to go anyway, but I do miss being “the fun guy”.

Yes, been excluded many times. The older I get the less I care to talk about what other people normally take about (work dramas, negative issues in their life, how their partner is trash, how it’s good America is “intervening” in other countries, etc). I used to just nod my head and smile and make a joke or 2. Now I actually speak my mind, and I tell my coworkers how negative they are, and they try to get me to talk negatively about my life and my partner and it never happens. That makes them mad for whatever reason, and now I’m not invited.

More room for positivity in my life!