You probably didn’t take your job because you were looking for a way to make new friends. However, if you look around your office, are you friends with anyone at work? Not like just stopping by their desk to ask about their weekend, but you’d actually go to happy hour or have them over to your home on a Saturday? If you don’t see your co-workers on the weekend, you’re not alone. According to a study by Olenka Kacperczyk, a doctoral candidate at the Ross School of Business in Michigan, only 50 percent of Americans socialize with their colleagues. Whereas in India 78 percent of employees see their colleagues outside of work. So why is it so important that you have friends at work?
- You’re likely to be more engaged at work
Being engaged in your work means that you’re actually interested in what you’re doing and you’re there for more than just a paycheck. Having people at work that you enjoy spending time with and find interesting make it more enjoyable to be there, and more likely that you’ll get fulfillment out of the time you’re spending there. This has the side effect of you developing loyalty to your team and company, making it less likely that you’re looking for a job or figuring out how to retire early without winning the lottery.
- You’ll be more productive
When you like the people you work with and have developed a friendship, you have likely also developed a mutual respect for one another and are comfortable communicating with one another. Comfortable, open communication fosters an environment conducive for brainstorming, idea sharing and solution development. This is likely what every manager wants for their team environment, but it’s difficult to drive this. It’s something that develops naturally amongst team members that like each other, love their work and genuinely want to succeed. This is such a valuable asset that companies spent over $100 billion dollars on team building activities in 2016 in the hope of getting their teams to bond and develop camaraderie.
- You’ll be happier
Matthew Lieberman, a distinguished social psychologist and neuroscientist, explains that seeing a friend everyday feels as good as getting a $100,000 raise. Working with economists he was able to literally put a price tag on friendships, and working with people you consider your friends can feel like you’ve gotten the raise of a lifetime.
- You’ll be more committed
It seems obvious when you frame commitment to your work in terms of how you handle your friendships. How badly do you feel if you let down a friend? You’d likely do just about anything to avoid feeling like you couldn’t be there when you had a friend in need. When your colleagues are your friends, you have a tendency to aspire to that same level of commitment that you’d have when you know a friend needs you. So when you let down a colleague that you’re friends with, you’re doing more than disappointing a co-worker. This has proven effects for teams. Jim Meyerle, co-founder of Evolv, a data analytics company that manages over 20 global workforces has found that happy teams improve the bottom line. His studies have found that people that have friends at work are happier and less likely to quit.
Not only does it feel good to know that your co-workers like you, it can actually make you better at your job. The next time you feel like you’re too swamped to take a break for a cup of coffee and chat with the co-worker you’ve been meaning to say hello to, fight the urge to scamper back to your desk. After all, your hello could lead to a friendship at work that might make you feel like you’re getting a $100,000 raise.