I work in a kitchen, people tend to be fairly negative and miserable. The leadership above me is untrustworthy and mostly concerned with their own trajectory. I say I don’t particularly care because I would not choose to associate with them if I had a choice. This doesn’t mean I don’t help people at work or look out for folks, though I do the same for people outside of work I don’t personally care about. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but you don’t have to care about a person individually to treat them with human kindness.

They are suggesting that coworkers aren’t friends. They can be but probably usually aren’t.