The past few years have been harsh and chaotic for many working people. Assumptions, habits, and ways of working are changing, and as we look to the future, many of us recognize that building personal resilience will be critical.
One of the key elements of personal resilience is friendship. It helps if we have a trusted best friend in our organization – someone who makes us feel rewarded, celebrates and can relate to.
Friendships at work matter. When so many hours are spent working, having someone who understands our situation — the players involved, the office dynamics, and the general organizational culture — can help buffer routine stress. When we share our experiences, it often reminds us that others have gone through similar ones.
The past few years have been tough and chaotic for many working people.
Assumptions, habits, and ways of working have changed, and as we look forward, many of us realize that building personal resilience will be key.
One of the crucial elements of personal resilience is friendship. It helps if we have a trusted confidant at our organization — someone who makes us feel worthwhile and whom we can celebrate and commiserate with.
Friendships at work matter. When so many hours are spent working, having someone who understands our situation — the players involved, the office dynamics, and the general organizational culture — can help buffer routine stress. When we share our experiences, it often reminds us that others have gone through similar ones.
Ways to Build Workplace Friendship
Test for trustworthiness. Relationships bridge from transactions into friendships through the steady accumulation of personal affection and trust. Our friendships are based on intimacy, and you become friends with people because both of you reveal your innermost thoughts and memories. Yet to reveal oneself (particularly to someone at work) is potentially dangerous — could they use this information against you or tell others? So perhaps even more so than in relationships outside of work, establishing whether a potential new friend is trustworthy is crucial. You have to decide, “Can I have confidence in this person?”
Knowing whether trust is possible is a process that begins by first being careful and paying close attention to the other person. How do they behave when they don’t believe they are being observed, such as in their treatment of subordinates? How do they talk about others? Do they show what Robert calls sympathetic joy, or are they envious and calculating? How do they deal with confidential information? Are they telling you secrets they are not supposed to tell? Do they overshare? Remember: You don’t have to be friends with everyone, and each relationship has to be considered on its own merits. No situation is identical to another.