Angela Burke, a Career Consultant, joined Drivetime to discuss the benefits of being friends with your coworkers, and whether it's always wise to welcome that dynamic. Listen back above.
Work wives and work husbands are almost as important to some of us as our actual partners, with the bonds you form in the workplace among some of the strongest in our lives - depending on where you work.
Research shows that workplaces are better and more enjoyable to be in when colleagues get along. Whether it's skipping out for a morning coffee together or firing off Slack messages after a particularly stressful meeting, being friends with your coworkers can make any workload feel lighter.
Burke noted how many people she'd heard from said that workplace friendships have been enough to keep them in a job."People do place a lot of weight on friendships and that leading to higher satisfaction at work", she said.
Workplace best friend, close friendly, workplace friendly and coworker or acquaintence are just some of the levels of closeness among colleagues, and Burke said that "trust and emotional exchange" separates the first two from the latter two levels.
"Often we'll find, and I know even from my own life, if I look at the close friends I have around me, actually two of them are from workplaces where I was actually going through a difficult time at work and in my personal life. And I think through that emotional exchange you become closer, don't you?"
With more awareness surrounding boundaries and appropriateness in the workplace, in particular, there could be a wariness of crossing lines in how close you become.
However, Burke said that it "depends where you are in your career".
"I think there's certain stages of your career where the head is down and you're really focused on progression or you're really focused on getting that extra responsibility etc. And then there's other stages of your career, particularly as a graduate, where you're more open to that kind of friendship.
"But absolutely I think people can be cautious, for sure."
Making true connections in the workplace depends on the persona you bring to the office too, as some people aim to be more serious when working, even if they're the joker of the pack away from the desk.
However, Burke noted, joining in can look differently for different people.
"There's a lot of talk of inclusion in the workplace, but a good point as well is that sometimes inclusion is allowing members of the team [not to join in], they don't want to be included, they don't want those extracurricular activities outside of work and that's inclusion to them."
