Benefits And Challenges Of Friendship In The Workplace
When you spend most of your week with the same people, you develop a bonding with them. There is a very fine line between friends and colleagues and can often be interchanged. Colleagues at offices that are friendly make office hours enjoyable. Your interests might match with theirs. However, overstepping boundaries with people at work can cause tension, miscommunication, and distractions. So, What are the benefits and challenges and why are workplace friendships so important?
When you spend most of your week with the same people, you develop a bonding with them. There is a very fine line between friends and colleagues and can often be interchanged. Colleagues at offices that are friendly make office hours enjoyable. Your interests might match with theirs. However, overstepping boundaries with people at work can cause tension, miscommunication, and distractions.
Benefits of friendship in the workplace
Motivation
Friends always motivate each other, be it personally or professionally. Motivated employees lead to enhanced productivity and allow an organization to achieve higher levels of output with optimum results. The positive communication between friends will encourage them to stay motivated for their work. Friends always focus on strength rather weakness to motivate them.
Job satisfaction
We will often opt for a company where we have friends rather than focusing on the dream job. If you want to love your work, then focus on developing positive environment around you and interact with your acquaintances in a friendly manner. You are already satisfied with the work-environment if you have your best friend working with you. You intend to continue the role for years.
Improved teamwork
When people know one another well, they are much likely to work effectively and efficiently. If two strangers are working together, they will take much time to start their work and coordinating a project will be an issue. On the other side, if friends work together, they will communicate with each other without hesitation and collaborate happily for the betterment of the project.
Positive work culture
Positive workplace culture can contribute to workplace friendships. It includes productivity and creativity, enhancing personal performance and evolve as a strong team. Many times employees aren’t even aware that these little changes can be positive for a company’s overall business.
Productivity
Productivity means producing more profits for the company. Having a best friend at work can boost the productivity of the work. Friendship leads to differentiation between highly productive and low productive workgroups. While working with a friend, you will enjoy your task rather than working with a person you don’t even know. The productivity reduces when you are working with a stranger compared to the scene where you work with a friend.
Higher Employee Retention Rate
When an employee feels connected to a company they share the same vision or feel like their colleagues have become like a family, they will be less likely to change their company. Friendship takes time to build, and if switching to another company, you need to start all over again. In this case, you try to stay there and enjoy your work.
Challenges of friendship in the workplace
Jealousy
The workplace competition can make two friends create differences among them. True friendship is complicated to exist when factors like money, status, and power come in their relationship. When the boss favors one employee over others, it creates a sense of jealousy amongst two friends. If the two friends need to complete a project against each other, they will feel guilty and will not be able to give their best.This will either destroy the friendship, or the work will get hampered
Neglecting others
Friends at same workplace often exclude their fellow employees. Other employees may assume that they’re not interested in bonding with any other employee. The employees may have an adverse feeling that they gossip about them. The employees may not trust them and also think that they give an opportunity to each other. Like, if one friend is a manager and the other is working for him, he intends to provide a better chance to his friend. Also, he tries not to show his negative traits or weaknesses to others.
Conflict
Workplace friendship can work when both the friends are equal, but if one gets promoted the other friend may grow resentful of his friend’s status and new responsibilities. It increases frictions between them and situation gets worse when one friend manages the other friend. It becomes difficult to give orders & directions to the other friend. The one who did not get promotion may also take advantage of the relationship to secure him for not doing assignments and projects.
Over To You
According to you, what role should friendship play in the workplace? Is this a smart idea to keep professional and personal lives separate and purposely make friends? Try not to overshare your views.
Friendship at the workplace has its own pros and cons. It is all about your perception and how you want to handle the diverse situations that it provides. All the best.
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