I may be forced to go to this work happy hour: https://www.reddit.com/r/antiwork/comments/13rgyvb/how_do_i_avoid_a_work_happy_hour_during_work/
If so, how do I genuinely care about my co-worker's lives? It seems wherever I go, co-workers are genuinely very interested in each other's lives. Whether authentic or not, on the surface seems authentic. This applied to me as well, they are generally very interested in my life as well.
To be honest, I don't give a damn about any of my co-worker's lives. But I feel like I am forced to in project team jobs. This is remote job and people exclaiming things like just had my baby, my daughter graduated, my father died, etc. Like I just work with these people, I don't know them personally and don't care for it. I normally say generic things like “Congrats”, “My condolences”.
Since this is remote, the comments above pass in remote context. But since I have to go to “work happy hour”, I can't really fake body language and expression. If someone says “My child just graduated”, I will say congrats but it will be with a stone cold face.
How do I fake genuine interest?