Those Italians in your coworker space, were they baristas or office workers? I would expect that Italians in Italy also cannot produce perfect espresso unless they made it their profession.
I grew up in an Italian household with both parents Italian immigrants and have a large extended Italian family.
It would have been an embarrassment to be unable to make a quality espresso.
I never drank any coffee/espresso beverages growing up and it was seen as a rejection of my family's culture, yet despite not consuming it I still was taught how to make espresso and would do it regularly for my parents.
Cuisine is a big part of Italian culture. We didn't go to restaurants because they made food better than we did at home because they were professionals, we'd go to give my mother a break and every time it was like the restaurant was on trial with my mother pointing out every damn thing that was done worse than had she made it.
Edit:
Just wanted to add that having been raised in that environment where authentic home-cooked delicious food was made every day, I can't go to Italian restaurants anymore, not in the US. It's completely ruined it. There were no professional cooks or barristas under that roof, just OG Italians.
In Naples, where I am from, if you work in a bar you're not allowed to touch the espresso machine unless you have worked there for at least 1 year. Maybe, only then, you could start asking questions about how to use it. So, I agree, you don't learn how to use those things unless you have worked with them.
