How to Make Friends at Work and Why Does It Matter?

Are you the kind of person who loves chatting with colleagues after work in a pub or one who believes that friendship and work relationships must be separated? For both groups, we’ll find useful advice about finding mates at work.

For extroverts, it will be useful to check if there’s something else you can do to build a positive environment with your team, and for introverts, the Collabio team ll reveal why making friends at work matters.

Let’s go!

Social Benefits You Get

First of all, communication at work means getting the benefits of social capital. Here are several examples of them:

• Psychological comfort. If you are not alone and surrounded by fellow guys, you feel more comfortable in any place.
• Motivation. Success of others inspires you to achieve more. Also, seeing teammates working will save you from procrastination.
• Involvement. Working in a team means the will not to let it down. You are part of it and all of you act like a single organism.
• Help at work. You may either look for or provide the necessary help. It’s completely free and relevant in almost all cases.
• Effective teamwork. Two heads are better than one. :) Strengthen the powers of each other, divide tasks by expertise and achieve more.
• Networking. The more you communicate with people in your company, the more useful contacts you get for the future.
• Emotional support. Besides sharing knowledge and experience, teammates may help you get over life problems.
• Communication after working hours. Having fun is as essential as having things at work done, do you agree?

10 Tips — How to Make Friends at Work

So, even if you don’t want to be friendly at your new workplace, now you may want it at least a bit. :) What’s more, communication won’t take you much time and effort, but the benefits will be just huge.

Try to do something from the list and see how it works… If you’ve already done most of our recommendations, check what you’ve missed or share your own experience in the Responses section!

1. Introduce Yourself

First, make a short presentation of yourself. Except for your name and position, describe your wide professional interests, hobbies, maybe some personal qualities.

Don’t make your introduction too promotional, let it be informational so that people don’t think you came to your new workplace to boast about all your achievements since school time. :) Better leave some intrigue for others to discuss later.

2. Master Small Talk Art

Asking how it’s going, how your colleagues like the weather today, or how they got to the office through all the traffic is a good idea to start your day. This will demonstrate your readiness to communicate and give others incentive to let you closer to their boundaries.

Also, your presence will be more visible within the team and you will faster become its part.

3. Get Interested in Others’ Work and Life

Asking questions about the interests of others always helps win their hearts. The point is not to forget this information. :)

The more enthusiasm you show, the more you get in return — people love sharing stories from their professional and personal life, so it’s one of the best ways to establish good contact with colleagues.

4. Collaborate

Team activities at the workplace are super-helpful from any perspective. They:

• Help you get to know each other better.
• Demonstrate the character of the people you work with.
• Foster a good mood, as you come to a common result faster.
• Unite coworkers.
• Enhance the productivity of each member, as you work together.

Earlier, we wrote about why collaboration is a must-have in every organisation and shared fascinating statistics about teamwork. Read more here. :)

Even if you work within one department, meeting people from other company structures lets you learn more about the employer, its brand, business specifications, and of course, colleagues!

5. Attend Events Together

Be it business or team building events, any occasion suits for building warm relationships with team members. Especially important are organised meetings after business hours — It is a good idea to meet with colleagues informally, play board games, spend time actively somewhere outside, or just chat about hobbies.

6. Go to Lunch or Coffee Breaks Together

Having breaks at work is essential not only for your communication but for your well-being in general. Use this time to have a rest from serious things and enjoy the taste of tea or coffee, and laugh at jokes together with colleagues.

From our experience, the most unexpected topics make the most interest. Discuss unbelievable facts of fun news — everyone will take part for sure. :)

7. Add People on Socials

To keep in touch after work or just see the updates about your colleagues’ interests, add them to your friend list on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. It is a chance to get to know them better.

Also, if you engage with likes and comments, this will serve you as a bridge to your friendship at the workplace.

8. Be Friendly and Positive

Smile can open any door, including ones at work. :) Not always everything goes smooth but a positive attitude helps you overcome harsh times easier and faster.

Also, people prefer communicating with those who show their friendliness. Just imagine, would you love to talk to someone whose look says “keep away from me”? Sure thing, so smile and be open to your new team.

9. Don’t Insist too Much

Trying to make friends in the first five minutes and following these tips like your to-do list for the next hour will be too much. :) Forcing friendship, like forcing promotion at work, works in the opposite direction. All this requires time and patience.

Have you heard that the happiest people never look for happiness intentionally? This approach works in building relationships — follow the natural flow, just enjoy your time and it will show who matches your character and can be a good friend.

10. Don’t Take Part in Office Gossip

Maybe we should start with this tip, however, we decided to keep it for the end. Office gossip will be present in ANY organisation, and we have just to live with this fact. All you can do is not to participate in it. Having fun for 10 minutes discussing the new look of your colleague may cost you the reputation.

Better focus on discussing ideas and news, not other people. Okay, if you can’t spend your day without chatting about someone, let it be news about celebrities, but certainly not your colleagues. :)