Work and Friends

We all know how it feels to work alone. Some prefer to work alone, and some don’t. I personally prefer working in a team. But working in a team isn’t enough if there isn’t any communication between teammates. One thing I realised is that for the team to work better and more productively, we need to bond in some way or the other. We need to find some common ground and shared interests so that we understand each other.

Making friends at work is a necessity if any of us want to reach our goals. Yes, it can get competitive when it comes to work. Some people only care about themselves and want to make money rather than learn in a collective experience. There will be people who will bad mouth you to put you down and that could affect your performance. But that won’t happen at all when having a bunch of friends who know your capability.

After all, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Who is Jack? I have no clue. But I’m sure you don’t want to be like him. You want to be professional and respect boundaries, fine, but it’s equally important to be yourself. When you are yourself, no matter how crazy you are, it doesn’t matter in your friend circle, collectively you can come up with great ideas. That’s the purpose of brainstorming, having collective ideas to attain one common goal and achievement.

Let’s talk about the friend’s circle I hang around with. We are a bunch of crazy people. No doubt about that. But we also have people who are quiet (at least were quiet when they joined the company) that hang around because they know they can be themselves around us. We laugh, fight (yes, fight as well, although the anger doesn’t remain for a long time), make fun of each other, work together (well not all of us, we have some friends in other departments), but nevertheless, we hang out and enjoy.

It is OK to not be able to do the best in everything that we do at work, that’s why we have friends for that because we know that they will help us whenever they can.

To cut my sermon short and make my final point, work becomes fun when you have friends with you. Take the time to get to know the person sitting next to you and maybe in another department too, and trust me, your boring days at work will be behind you.

Hope you enjoyed reading this blog, if not, well, you can learn to enjoy it. Cheers!

–Ian Veiga Coutinho