It has been estimated that only 5 percent of people have a true vocation in life. This unfortunate statistic means the rest of us are stuck in a dead-end job that likely leads to that chronic case of Monday blues you feel after the weekend is over. Cliff Arnall actually calculated the third Monday in January to be the most depressing day of the year, a day known as “Blue Monday,” although this calculation has been widely criticized as pseudoscience by scientific contemporaries.
A lot of people advocate for work-life balance which can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Instead of taking on the impossible, why not become more conscious of integrating your personal life into your work life? In her book, Radical Candor, Kim Scott advocates that to create a culture of candid feedback and to get the results you want, you must care personally.
Care personally, work meaningfully
We spend a disproportionately large amount of time in the workplace over the course of the average career. Time spent agonizing over your job or complaining about the people you work with will only make matters worse. Time spent more wisely could lead to a more fruitful career and personal life. If you take time to build better relationships with your colleagues at work, you may find some of the benefits of workplace friendships that have been reported by others.
Did you know the average person was 27 percent more likely to report feeling their job was meaningful when they also have friends at work? Having someone you trust at work is greatly beneficial to both your mental and physical well-being. In fact, people who reported having no close friends were 50 percent more likely to incur a heart attack. Psychologists have studied the human need for social interaction and the emotional need to be loved and belong in society is even highlighted in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
This need to belong has seemingly been amplified with the current social environment moving digital and more disengaged from actual human interaction. In fact, 55% of Americans reporting to have less than five close friends which is why it is more vital than ever to make real connections with people in your daily life.
How work friends can help
If you are hesitant to build those strong bonds at work out of fear of negatively impacting your career prospects or perhaps losing focus on your personal growth within the company, these benefits of having friends at work might change your mind:
- Stronger company culture and loyalty
- Increased productivity
- More effective teams
- Increased engagement
Having someone to talk candidly to about your situation at work can relieve a ton of pent-up stress. It’s been found that people with strong interpersonal relationships are less likely to suffer from depression and anxiety. Having a workplace “bestie” may be the cure for the Monday blues after all.
Building strong friendships within the workplace can be rewarding, However, in today’s work environment it is more important than ever to distinguish between what is acceptable and appropriate as friends in the workplace. In the visual from GetVoIP below you will find 12 amazing benefits of having friends in the workplace:
Now you can put your mind at ease when you join your colleagues for lunch or have a meaningful conversation that may have turned more personal than you originally intended. Building relationships at work can be an amazing tool to further your personal and professional career.
As you can see there are many benefits to building lasting connections with those people you spend increasingly more time with into your adulthood. It might be time to start calling those people you so lovingly refer to as your co-workers, your friends.