Having friends in office make you more productive. Here's how!

In case you like to keep your professional life strictly professional and do not like to make friends at work, this article might change your perception a bit. A recent research has indicated that having friends in the office helps to improve an employee’s productivity. Here are all the details of this study.

This study was done by a group of professors led by Jessica Methot from Rutgers University, and the researchers wanted to understand how the relationship between the employees impacted their work performance. Therefore, they surveyed 168 employees of a company and temporarily changed their seating arrangement so that they can interact better with other employees from different teams.

Next, the participants were asked to name ten colleagues they would approach for a ‘work-related ’ issue and ten co-workers they considered friends. The respondents were also asked questions related to their work environment and emotional exhaustion.

After four to six weeks of this survey, the researchers asked the managers of these participants to rate their performance. Interestingly, this data helped the researchers to analyse this newly-developed network of friends and co-workers, and they concluded having friends at work actually improved their productivity.

There are multiple benefits of having friends at the office. The biggest one being there is always someone you can ask for work-related help without the fear of being judged.

Further, the respondents who had friends at work reported being in a good mood more often and got more access to internal information because of their informal network.

The study mentioned that having buddies at work also had a downside. The employees might get distracted from work or take longer to complete their task if they take frequent breaks with their friends. That’s quite relatable, right?

Also, sharing a close bond with co-workers might lead to emotional exhaustion and the relationship can get stressful at times, especially during the time of promotion. However, the positives of having a friend at work outweighed the negatives.

The researchers also conducted a follow-up study across multiple companies from different industries and concluded the same. Being friends with colleagues might get emotionally draining but overall, it helps to improve one’s productivity.

(All images used here are representational)