You might wonder how much of yourself you should bring to work and how can you build friendships with the people you work with? We have built friendships of varying strengths in our workplaces and in this episode we share our success stories, the part company culture has to play in building friendships and the influence friends at work have had on our career.
Having solid friendships with your colleagues at work can help to make your work more enjoyable and improve productivity. If you care about your work and the people you work with, the work you produce will be to a high standard.
It is up to the company in some instances to set the precedent which will allow coworkers to get to know each other better and forge relationships. If your company doesn’t encourage friendships, try to develop a stronger sense of community yourself. Invite people you get along with for a virtual coffee and try to keep the topic of conversation away from work.
The temptation to make your friendship with your colleague based solely around work is strong but try and avoid this. Venting might be helpful in small doses but don’t forget to also celebrate your successes.
Making friends at work exposes you to a bunch of people that you wouldn’t meet otherwise. As women in tech it is particularly important to have supportive colleagues and friends who lift each other up.
If you are in a friendship with someone who is in a senior or junior position to yours at work, respect the necessary boundaries that are in place. Your friendship should be robust enough to survive giving or receiving constructive criticism.
04.13 – Can friendships at work, work?
11.07 – When friendships get in the way
20.08 – The positives of work friendships
24.50 – Maintaining boundaries with friends from work
