Why has friendship in the workplace become a business obsession?

A large American pharmaceutical company realized that marketing and sales employees had very cold relations with each other. Increasing opportunities for strike up a conversation fuori dall’orario di lavoro sono cambiati i paradigmi delle relazioni lavorative. Le aziende in cui i dipendenti lavorano meglio, sia in termini quantitativi che in termini qualitativi, sono proprio quelle in cui ogni singolo membro si sente a proprio agio e ha un buon rapporto con i colleghi.

Lucia Gabani, L’Huffington Post, Pubblicato: 19/10/2015

21st century HR and emotional intelligence experts agree that a warm and friendly work environment allows workers to work harder and better.

In offices where colleagues are able to establish friendships, the environment is more productive: problems are solved in less time, the results are better because having more cordial relationships, collaborators are able to be more creative.

Jordi Robert Ribes is the founder of Connecting Perspectives, a team of human resources professionals, told S Fashion of the Spanish newspaper El País that a large American pharmaceutical company realized that marketing and sales employees had very cold relations with each other. The company then proceeded reducing the number of coffee machines: instead of one machine every six workers, one every 150 was installed. At that point if workers of the two different sectors had not met outside working hours, they would have had, between one coffee and another, an opportunity to strike up a conversation.

The paradigms of working relationships have changed: if in the past competitiveness was a stimulus to bring out the best in every worker, today the keyword is collaboration. The companies in which employees work best, both in quantitative and qualitative terms, are precisely those in which every single member feels at ease and has a good relationship with colleagues.

Doctor Robert-Ribes ha spiegato il perché: “ognuno di noi vede il mondo attraverso un filtro, questo significa che perdiamo molte cose. Pertanto, è essenziale parlare con gli altri e condividere le proprie esperienze e i punti di vista fuori della nostra zona di comfort”.

The reporter of S Fashion of El País reported the stories of two workers who can confirm what Dr. Robert-Ribes claimed:

Elena (the name is fictitious) is 43 years old and has two children, but a few months ago she realized she had a serious problem: an excessive dose of stress deriving mainly from her job. As she herself says, she is going through a very delicate personal moment, but when asked why she doesn't leave her job, the answer is surprising: "I am facing a very difficult moment, the environment and the network of friendships that I have created with the group of colleagues it gives me a lot of strength. I'm afraid leaving doesn't offer me the same support and trust I've built in here over so many years."

On the contrary, Miguel is a guy who loves his job but preferred to leave it precisely because relations with colleagues had become too tense: "I had a prestigious, comfortable and secure role but I preferred to leave it because the relationship with colleagues had become unsustainable. There was no trust, the environment was very competitive, I isolated myself and totally lost motivation”.

However, the real driver of innovation, retention of talent and an emotional connection between employees and society is a new concept, he said building bridges, costruzione del ponte, una strategia gradualmente introdotta nelle organizzazioni. Si tratta di una tecnica per promuovere i legami di cooperazione e di amicizia tra i dipendenti dei diversi dipartimenti al fine di trovare approcci e proposte che facilitino l’interazione. Oltre a migliorare i profitti aziendali, questa metodologia sostiene l’idea che il benessere emotivo dei lavoratori e il loro rapporto di fiducia.