Former “scummy contractor” here. So, a “contractor” being in the office is considered a mortal sin.

I don’t know why this is, but it’s always been this way. Workers don’t go into the building.

The office staff don’t want you there and if you stay too long, your fellow workers will rib you for hours about going to “the dark side”.

In my few years at the job, I had only been in the office area for 5 minutes to fill out some sort of paperwork. Most of that from when I was hired.

Seeing as he was in there on multiple occasions, he probably did establish rapport with the office staff, but left that out because it messed with the flow of the story.

I worked at a warehouse tech startup that had offices attached to our warehouse. The conference rooms looked out over the warehouse floor through big glass walls.

The warehouse workers were explicitly banned from entering the office space. I assume because the company didn’t want them enjoying the free snacks and catered lunches.