This is, I find, the difference between the US in particular and Europe.

In the US, one has co-workers ... in Europe colleagues. It might seem like semantics, but that's the point: a co-worker is distanced fro me, a cog in a mechanism ... a colleague someone I work with — too right, it's semantics ... I don't wanna work in a demhumanising environment, no more than a lonely human resource to be exploited ... I wanna work alongside colleagues, with whom I construct something of value (the business service offered to our clients).

In my experience, having worked for US and non-US companies, the US ones make a lot of fuss about 'family' and 'culture' but then go on to impose them on people whilst treating them as mere assets ... despite which, I've made some of the best, most lasting friendships with colleagues I met there because, being European, we viewed each other as brothers/sisters-in-arms and voluntarily spent time ... a lot of time ... together outside the office, not at the mandated 'optional' company social events where you're unable to socialise properly thanks to being aware that you have to watch your behaviour at all times, lest HR, management, or others (who would all too gladly take active steps to see your career flounder), use who you are against you afterwards — after four years at one of the US companies, it was brought to my attention that it had been noted I wasn't attending all the optional, extracurricular company events!

Nah ... I don't want a raise and to go home — that's soul-destroying. I don't want to sit alone amongst co-workers, thanks very much, I want to go to work, and take part in the office/company culture ... but an actual culture that is the organic result of people working together towards a common goal, not HR metrics.