The Importance of Small Talk

I know that a lot of people feel that small, making small talk is a waste of time at work. And for us, like in English speaking places or in Western culture, I think it's absolutely necessary. Do you think there are some topics that are off limits? For example, if someone that I don't really talk too often at my job, they come up to say, hey, Tiff, so tell me what did you do yesterday? If they ask me a deeper question, like, how's your husband doing or how's your children like, what do you think?