By Jackson Cate
The workplace can offer us much more than simply a source of income, it can be a source of happiness, motivation, and even friendships in the right situations. People in strong workplace friendships offer each other happiness and support, which can help us navigate difficult times at work, perform better at our job, and increase our well-being at work (Wright, 1984). But we don't provide the same level of support and happiness to our co-workers that we don’t consider our friends (Fowler & Christakis, 2008). Lacking friendship with co-workers can be detrimental to our ability to cope with work- and life-related stressors, as well as our performance and well-being at work. This is especially important for people in work that follows a more strict routine (Winstead et al., 1995). In these work environments, social aspects of the job have a greater influence on our well-being and engagement at work. And often, in this routine work, the social aspect of work is largely made up of our interactions with our co-workers, meaning that developing and maintaining work friendships is even more important. So, a word to the wise employers, give our work BFF that raise to keep them around (and us too, if it's going).
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