Friendship in the Workplace: Benefits and Challenges

Do you have friends at your workplace? Do you have a genuine bond with them? Why do you think it is so important to have friends at your workplace? Or just simply, is it even important to have friends in the workplace? Having friends at the workplace has both its advantages and disadvantages.

Let’s think back to our school days. For many, those were some of the best days of our lives when making friends was our only aim. We used to make friends to share our sorrows, joys, lunch-box, and every little thing that belonged to us. However, as we grow, friendship isn’t as straightforward as it was in school.

Fast forward to our workplace and making friends becomes more a matter of choice. We need to think about the benefits and challenges that friends at workplace bring us. Let’s take a look.

Benefits:

• Friendships at work help the organisation to grow: When you become friends with employees within an organisation, you invest more of your effort and time in the development of the organisation. You’re more likely to want everyone in the company to succeed. You and your friends are always there for each other when needed. When everyone works as a team towards a common goal, the whole of the organisation sees the benefits and shares the success.
• Friendship helps to develop communication: When you make friends in the workplace, you become much more social. This helps in creating a team environment between the employees, which in turn enhances your decision-making skills and makes it easier to manage any disputes within the group.

Challenges:

• Friendships in the workplace may disrupt your focus: Managers of companies always tend to observe their employees carefully. They will notice if their employees are overly-talkative or are losing interest in their work. Many companies fail to observe the long-term benefits of the friendship. They consider it a total waste of time when two employees are talking with each other on some topic unrelated to work. Companies may even find ways to separate friends in the workplace to maintain their productive work culture.
• Competency and enviousness: There is always competition in the workplace. For example, when one of your friends gets promoted to a higher position and you don’t, it brings a feeling of negativity towards your friend in your mind. This may disrupt the workplace.

Apart from these benefits and challenges of friendship at the workplace, I believe that one must build friendships outside the office environment. This way you will be friends with someone the way you want to be. Also, if you do not want your productivity to be hampered in the office, you may hang out with your office colleagues after office hours and enjoy quality time with them then. This way you will be productive at your workplace while enjoying your work and friendships too.