

That’s what pto is for. A company outing is literally for what the person you responded to said and you ignored
So that way when they’re working on things they know that a week ago at the event bob said he dealt with X, I can ask him what he did. Or John studied Y in school, he could probably help me with this. If you just send everyone home then you’re building an anti social environment where people just exist around each other, and because they’re busy with work don’t take the time to get socialize and get comfortable around the people they’re working with.
You’re lying if you think you would rather work than go do something fun. Either that or you’ve been brainwashed into thinking that work must be pain. Maybe your current job sucks and that’s why you think that you’d have to “switch gears” but if you’re not talking to your coworkers during the work day then you’re probably not doing your job in the first place which is what days like this help fix.