I don't think you have to be friends with your co-workers, it would be nice to be friends with them but I wouldn't want to feel obligated to be friends with them. I feel that you should have the choice to make your own friends. It's great to have friends, someone to make jokes and have fun with. Being friends with a co-worker could be distracting they could keep you from finishing your work. I think that you don't really need to be friends with your co-workers but it's all up to what you want. Over all I would want my co-workers to be my friends but I don't want to feel forced into it.

When people say that "everyone else does it" I think it is a way to get what they want. They try persuading someone by saying that everyone they know does it. It's one of the easiest ways to get what you want without having to do much. I have experience with that, I asked my mom if I could get a piercing and she was completely against it. I tried everything to convince her but it didn't work. I told her that some of my friends have piercings and when I told her who they were she gave me permission to get it.