Why the Friends You Make at Work Mean So Much to You

Around 70% of working people say that having friends at work is an important factor in having a happy work life. This kind of friendship comes with many perks inside and even outside your workplace. If you think about past jobs you didn’t like that much, the only thing you miss is the people you worked with.

Bright Side will now explain the reasons why having friends at work is so important to all of us.

They make us happier and more motivated

Having a friend at work boosts our happiness. Having them by our side is good for our overall well-being and will make us feel less stressed. If economists put a price on these kinds of relationships, in terms of happiness, seeing a friend every day at work is the same as earning $100,000 more every year.

If we are working in a positive and friendly environment, where we get along with the people around us, we feel more engaged, focused, and overall motivated. We want to do good around our friends because we are working toward the same goals.

They can help us increase our productivity.

A study found that people who have a friend at work are 43% more likely to receive praise for their work. If you create strong bonds with work colleagues, it will have a very positive impact on your productivity, as you will work more effectively with them.

They give us guidance.

We can always receive guidance from colleagues, but the best and most honest advice will always come from our friends. They feel comfortable enough to criticize us positively, and we will generally be able to accept it better. If they’re more experienced than us, they’ll give us their tips to do better and improve our performance.

They know the real us.

If we are working full-time (8 hours a day), we will end up spending a lot of time with them. They have seen us on our best and worst days. They know how we celebrate happiness and how we demonstrate stress. We even share some of our deepest secrets with them, since they are there when things are happening.

We can relate to them.

We know their struggles in work and they know ours. They can even be the same struggles. We deal with the same people every day and pretty much have the same routine. No one will understand our struggles better than they will.

They are necessary if you want a successful career.

Having friends at work boosts our mood and gives us the emotional and psychological support to deal with our job. This will make us more comfortable and willing to do our best, consequently giving us more chances to succeed.

Do you feel like having friends at work helps you get through the day? Or do you believe that getting this comfortable is not the best option?