Having Friends at Work Makes You Happier, Study Says

The office is full of friends, from lunch mates to that one person who always hangs out for a short chat near your desk. Friendship in the workplace affects employees’ feeling of wellbeing, motivation, and job satisfaction.

A payroll outsourcing firm Paychex surveyed over 1,001 full-time workers to study the effects of friendship at work. A separate study also shows that work friends are good for you, as every employee across the world deals with loneliness at work.

 

The Friendliest Ones

Who tends to have the most friends in the office? Baby Boomers (people born between 1946 to 1964), especially men have around 6.3 work buddies on average.

People in management also have more work friends, probably because they have been there longer.
 

The Ones Who Need More Friends

Millennial women had the fewest work buddies, at 3.5 This is possibly due to having jobs that are shorter in duration. Consultants and temporary workers also have fewer friends. This is probably because these jobs require them to move from place to place.

According to the research, those who were satisfied with their job had 4.3 friends. Those with just one fewer friends at 3.3 were dissatisfied.
 

Friends Inside & Beyond The Workplace

It appears that there is a friend overlap for over half of the people surveyed. 54.9% said their personal friends know their work friends. The most popular work-friend activity was having lunch, of course. 83.3% of Baby Boomers do it, followed by Gen Xers and Millennials.

75% of Baby Boomers prefer the water-cooler chat, usually about non-work topics such as sports and TV shows. Gen Xers and Millennials also prefer this activity.

Many employees love to get happy at Happy Hour, but Millennials prefer it more than the other generations. 40.1% for Millennials, 34.2 for Gen X, and 32.1% for Baby Boomers.

Hanging out on days off from work is the choice for 39% of Gen X and Millennials.

 

Management Approves Friendship in the Workplace

Those who work in management or human resources highly regard workplace friendships, with 71% viewing them as positive, 4% of them viewed them as negative and 25% think they had no effect.

One respondent said “I think workplace friendships are great.”

"You spent more time at work than home, and happy employees perform better than unhappy employees. I also think you get more work done, and people work more together when they are friends and comfortable with each other.”

 

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Source: Ladders

 

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