The availability of a work-friendly environment is one of the most important motivators that employees look for, and forming Business friendships may pave the way for the creation of this environment.
This result was reached by the company, “Office Team” through a survey conducted to assess the impact of making friendships between workers on the work environment.
25% of employees surveyed confirmed that work friendships are second in importance, directly after salary.
However, there are serious repercussions that may result from such friendships on productivity and the smooth flow of work within companies, especially as personal disputes have occurred between employees that cast a shadow over the performance of their duties.
The job site “Robert Half” revealed 5 reasons that may turn work friendships into a nightmare for companies, and they are as follows:
Business friendships, The reasons:
1- Non-compliance with professional behavior
Sometimes the exaggerated familiarity between co-workers leads to overcoming the professional behaviors set by the organization, including discussion of events outside work within the company, or the use of terms that do not fit the environment of the place or calling each other names of fraud.
2- Dealing with friends is limited
The psychological comfort that arises from among friends, may lead some to limit interactions to their friends only within the facility, which results in the resentment of others, or to explain this by their lack of acceptance, which negatively affects the work relations and coordination necessary to accomplish the required tasks.
3- Absence of borders
The special relationships that bring together the friends of work allow them to exchange personal information, and from here, discussions about this information took place inside the workplace that may raise the resentment of some of them.
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This requires setting clear limits on the topics they are allowed to talk about during work, to avoid disagreements that could hinder their work.
4- Preference for friends
If a member of the work team received a promotion and expanded the circle of his supervisory duties, he will have another task, which is not to distinguish his friends or give them better treatment than others, so that sensitivity does not arise among the rest of the colleagues, which negatively affects the work environment and productivity.
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5- After the expiration of friendship
It is possible that disputes or events will occur that end the friendship between co-workers, and hence if these people do not succeed in separating that from the nature of work, the result will be disastrous for the work system within any institution.
In such cases, the importance of applying the internal regulations or the code of professional conduct that clearly defines the rules and procedures followed in organizing the relationship between all employees appears.
Business friendships.. positives with some reservations
Sometimes circumstances and pressures require to spend more time in the workplace than a person can spend with his close friends or family members.
Does this mean that work relationships can become close day after day, or with the passage of time do they turn into solid friendships, and can colleagues bring them together after the end of working hours, common hobbies or strong family relationships?
And can a co-worker turn into a safe-store of personal secrets, to which a person relaxes when he leads his worries and problems, as happens between close friends,
Or is the collegial relationship, no matter how established and extended, that it will not be able to transform into a continuous and lasting friendship, due to the daily competitions and pressures it engages in?
Read also: Friendship at work.. 6 ways to help you make new friends at work. Read also: Friendship at work.. Look for these seven qualities in co-workers
