STAFF EDITORIAL
In a world of team building, office parties and happy hours, balancing friendly relationships with coworkers and workplace boundaries can be challenging. While bonding over shared snacks and casual chats can make work more enjoyable, personal relationships impact professional dynamics.
According to a peer reviewed journal article called “Social Connections in the Workplace,”featured in the American Journal of Health Promotion, “Supportive workplace connections can alleviate stress levels, enhance feelings of security, provide help solving problems, provide understanding and sympathy, and help reduce work distress.” The article also affirms that workplace friendships can help coworkers resolve issues both in and out of the workplace.
According to Indeed.com, forming relationships with coworkers can help team building. Workers that are friends can increase cooperation, as those who get along are more trusting of one another and open to communicating with each other, which will lead to more productive results. On the other hand, being friends with your coworkers could hinder workplace productivity, as coworkers could get caught up in chatting, joking and venting, which can prevent work from being done. That is why it is important to practice moderation in these activities and set time outside of work to converse about things not work-related.
One valid concern of workplace friendships is whether or not it becomes harder to give and receive constructive criticism. A study titled “When Friends Exchange Negative Feedback” shows that as relationships with colleagues deepen, they exchange more negative feedback and become more invested in improving performance based on that feedback. However, in more distant relationships, feedback is often avoided to protect the relationship, making it harder to give and receive constructive criticism.
Workplace friendships can contribute to team building but in equal measure have the ability to create an exclusionary environment. Some coworkers will naturally get along and that will make teamwork flow more easily, but this won’t be the case across the board. Keeping a professional distance between a working relationship and a friendly relationship can help prevent leaving valuable members of a team out of workflow.
Here at the Foghorn, we consider ourselves to be friends both and in and out of the office. While this does not always keep us on task, it has greatly improved our college experiences and made working at the Foghorn a joy each week.
Editor-in-Chief: Jordan Premmer, Chief Copy Editor: Sophia McCrackin, Managing Editor: Jordan DelFiugo, Opinion Editor: Dakota Duran, Scene Editor: Elina Graham
