Most of us spend close to 8 or 9 hours of a day at the office. And as social creatures, humans need company to maintain their sanity. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that we make friends at work. They help to keep up a healthy and jovial spirit in us and we get the opportunity to do the same for them!
Let’s take a minute to think of a scenario where this isn’t true or applied. Imagine walking into the office where you haven’t made any friends. You walk in, there’s no greetings. You sit at your table all day and socialise with no one. When it’s time for you to clock out, you walk out like strangers who had just reported to a day’s worth of work.
It could be a robotic experience and most definitely, a less happier one. And unfortunately, this happens at certain workplaces! If you’re curious as to why you should turn things around for yourself or a colleague, you’re at just the right place.
In this article, we hope to share with you some advice as to why making friends at work is crucial to one’s well-being.
A word of caution
A word of caution before we delve into the article: the following mentioned tips and tricks are information that has been generally observed across numerous work sectors. There may be instances in which specific advice may not match or suit what is expected for a specific firm, industry or job role.
As such, this written piece aims to function as a guide and should not be read as a comprehensive or exhaustive list of advice when it comes to socialising at the workplace. The best way to find out what may work for your success would be by conducting ample research.
Browsing through this article could function as the first step you take into exploring different ways to ensure you are putting your best foot forward.
Without further ado, let’s get right into the article!
Why it's important to make friends at work
1. Stronger mental health
One of the biggest reasons why we should make friends at work is due to the benefits it will have on our mental health.
Friendships can get rid of feelings of isolation, depression and disconnections. When you have someone to share your day’s events with, we build a social connection with this individual. A bridge is built where we’re able to socialise with another.
It creates a friendly atmosphere where positive vibes are present. Plus, this is crucial to building and sustaining a positive work environment too. This can be done in simple ways too. Greet your colleagues in the morning and have lunch together. Go get a coffee break or take short breaks from projects that may be driving you crazy!
This gives you the time to create a social circle that will have great benefits for your mental health!
2. The room it allows for growth
The second reason why it’s important to make friends at work is due to the room it allows for personal growth. There is a strong correlation between making friends and having an exchange of feedback at the workplace. When you share and receive feedback with your friends, you not only increase the knowledge shared but can also possibly resolve issues quickly.
Exchanging feedback as friends also creates an avenue for the successes of individuals or teams working on a project. By sharing feedback, you are more likely to understand the amount of work that has been done by another friend of yours. It gives you a better perspective of how others are working and what else is going on behind the scenes.
Keep in mind that feedback is not only for your own personal growth. Feedback enables your friends to celebrate small and big wins that you have made together too. A win for you is a win for your friend!
Furthermore, feedback enables individuals to feel appreciated, valued and recognised. This will translate to one becoming more motivated, engaged and thus more efficient at work. And all these can only be done if you’ve established a trusted level of friendship! For these reasons, making friends can do wonders for one’s personal and professional growth.
3. Friendships build teamwork
Yet another reason why making friends at work is important is due to how it can build a spirit of teamwork at the office. No matter how hard you work individually, there are some projects that call for teamwork. Employing collaboration at the office, as such, is one other way you can succeed at work!
When you’ve made friends at work, team spirit is instilled in every individual that is part of a social group. This allows room for creativity to take stage while allowing friends to come together to achieve success collectively.
In order to ensure that the team spirit between friends is continuously maintained, create informal events to allow interaction. Hold lunch sessions where friends can come together, outside the context of work to reconnect with each other.
The spirit of collaboration is one that can push individuals to look at organisational goals as a collective aim. As such, building friendships means investing in teamwork. And who wouldn’t love to have someone there for them? 😉
To wrap things up...
And there you have it – a compiled list of 3 reasons as to why making friends at work is so important. We hope this article has helped to provide you with enough motivation to get the ball rolling. We wish you the best of luck!
Just bear in mind that making friends can be nerve-wrecking for everyone. Calm your mind and remember to breathe. With all that being said, we have to come to the end of this article! We hope this written piece has provided you with some insights as to how you can put your best foot forward at the new workplace!
In the meantime, if you’re on the lookout for job opportunities at organisations within Singapore that may tap on these trends to march ahead, read on! 😉
Need some career resources?
As was briefly covered above, GrabJobs shares career resources in the form of articles for people at different stages of their work lives. Our resources share details on how freshers can start to look for jobs more effectively. We also share about the best job interview practises, how individuals can grow their career and so much more!
These are just some of the topics we explore, namely.
Feel free to visit GrabJobs here for more information and interesting reads! We hope you find our resources helpful and useful 🙂
On the lookout for a job?
If you’re just about to begin the job hunting process, why not consider giving GrabJobs a visit?
GrabJobs is an efficient recruitment platform that connects thousands of job-seekers and employers around the world on a daily basis. Individuals can rely on the platform’s free job search functionalities to receive job matching alerts, access the career resources library and online courses to build their career.
With its instant live chat feature with employers, job seekers can expect to not miss a single opportunity while receiving timely updates about their applications as well as automated reminders when they get invited for an interview.
Through the platform, you’ll be able to filter through specific industries, part-time, freelance and full-time positions too. No matter the industry or the position, remember to visit GrabJobs to find a job opportunity in Singapore easily!
