20 Proven Ways To Make Friends At Work

Joanna joined the CareerAddict content team in 2017, and her role has evolved into a multifaceted one over time. Joanna holds both a BA and an MA in journalism, and previously worked within a variety of fields including HR and recruitment, travel, fashion and entertainment. She’s also our in-house fashion guru and enjoys cooking up a storm in her spare time. As you have seen, it’s not that difficult to make a connection with at least one person within your workplace. Don’t try to force friendships upon colleagues that may be closed off to it. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of businesses turned their normal happy hours into virtual ones. Think of having a Friday celebratory drink from home, while still having meaningful discussions with your teammates.

If you want to meet other digital nomads, go to nomad hotspots where they’re likely to be. If you want to meet tech entrepreneurs, go to meetups in tech hotspots. If people don’t respond to your efforts, don’t jump to conclusions. Maybe they’re overwhelmed with work and have no time for “the new guy” right now. Or they might have other issues, like a difficult history with your department or predecessor. Because co-workers don’t regularly see you in the elevator or the hallway, they might forget you. Preemptively remind them of your name and role when meeting with them.

Take Advantage Of Existing Opportunities

Don’t fight a connection if one starts popping up. Explore the connection, get to know the person and see what happens over the next several weeks or months. Maybe that relationship will blossom into a great friendship. “Many workers rely on spontaneity and proximity to build working friendships,” wrote Rob Kim, who is a career educator. As I often do, I reached out to the LinkedIn community to find out about how they build and foster work friendships — especially in a hybrid world. While I can’t feature all of their comments, you can find them by clicking here. In other words, it’s completely within your right to decide that you don’t want to invest in friendships at work.

• So you asked about getting outside of your comfort zone.
• Making these adaptations is critical because friendships make work fun—and fun matters.
• Although it’s not essential to go to every meeting, it’s ideal to show your face every now and again.
• He first put together virtual social events, like online happy hours and scavenger hunts, and, starting in late March, added in-person meetups at safe outdoor venues in the Seattle metro area.

Notice that Shonda had a big smile on her face when someone mentioned the latest episode of “Only Murders in the Building”? Send her a quick message asking what she thought about the cliffhanger ending. You may also want to consider starting your own group. Think there may be other folks in your organization looking for outdoor volunteer opportunities? Start a Slack channel and invite anyone who’s interested to join. We all love to poke fun at icebreaker activities, but they’re still around for a reason. Research shows that having a “work bestie” can increase your job satisfaction.

The Surprising Trait That May Be Affecting Your Productivity

We talked for many hours and it was such a wonderful way for me to make a new friend and also learn more about her culture and country’s history. The pandemic created a shift to remote work that may have negatively impacted some employees. The 2021 Wildgoose survey found that more employees lacked workplace friends – and wanted work friends – than in its 2017 survey. Managers should make an effort to keep remote workers engaged and help them feel less isolated.

• I also realised that discussing books is a great way to assess someone’s attitudes and values – always useful when making quality friendships.
• You want to be warm and open to your co-workers, whether or not you’d like to hang out with them after hours.
• If it feels awkward to invite them to a one-on-one get together, consider asking them to go to a group event with you, like a party or a movie night.
• And when you’re more approachable, managers will notice you more and, as a result, you’ll be able toadvance faster than your closed off colleagues.
• Start a Slack channel and invite anyone who’s interested to join.

Join them and don’t be afraid to contribute to or spark a conversation. Working remotely doesn’t have to be a solitary endeavor, especially now that more people are doing it and getting comfortable connecting with one another online using a variety of tools and apps. No matter what your approach, be that person who genuinely wants to know more about others, and then listen to them like they are the only person on the planet.

Engage In Small Talk

You don’t want to be the person who only takes during any relationship. You should leave the proverbial door open to organic friendships. The beauty of these connections is that they can come from the least likely places. In my experience, sometimes the people who have the least in common on paper end up forming the strongest bonds. Whether an how to make friends when you work from home employee works remotely or in an office or hybrid work model, we’ll explore why work best friends can benefit coworkers, businesses, and the overall company culture. As you befriend more people, you may find that some are easier to get along with than others. If this is the case, ease your way out of the friendship as gracefully as possible.

In challenging situations, employees who report having a best friend at work have lower stress levels. Both the Gallup and Wildgoose surveys found that people with close work friends were more confident and composed in finding solutions to their problems because they have friends supporting them. Work is often a means to an end, and jobs come with stressors and unexpected events that are out of your control. Awork best friend can help make the hours spent in the workplace happier and more purposeful. The past year and a half has only complicated things. With some data showing more than half of workers were given the option to work from home during at least some of the pandemic, personal and professional worlds have blurred. Many of us felt depleted, time-starved, and isolated.

The Social Plight Of The Work

And you’re gonna wind up describing your work in the context of the human that’s in front of you. And, most important, it’ll be fresh and it won’t be formulic.

• Now, I’m not talking about an elevator pitch or a static way to answer the question, “So, what do you do?
• The pandemic created a shift to remote work that may have negatively impacted some employees.
• It’s why, as cities and workplaces increasingly open up, finding that balance between the physical and virtual will be key.

Read on for five tactics that have helped me break free from my antisocial self-employed slump. If you’re looking for work to help you create a social life—for example, if you’re moving to a new city to start work after college—pay attention to the social opportunities when choosing a job. Large companies often need to do big hires all https://remotemode.net/ at once, a fact that can make them appealing if you’re starting out and looking for friends. You can ask about the social environment during an interview, though you may not need to as many companies promote this aspect of their intake programs. While it’s tempting to slip into a life of pajamas and unwashed hair, fight the urge!

#3 Host A Safe, Distanced Outdoor Event

You can still show appreciation to others by arranging a gift delivery for a colleague’s birthday or whatever the occasion may be. It’s still important to offer personal touches where possible to let others know that you’re still thinking of them. If you’ve formed a good connection with someone at work, invite them to hang out outside the office. Most often, people let loose and act more naturally when they’re not in a working environment. You could also extend the invite to your entire team and suggest happy hour on a Friday evening, encouraging the entire team to bond beyond work tasks. Most organizations with agood company culturearrange at-work activities and out-of-work gatherings. These provide you with the perfect opportunity to meet people that you don’t directly work with every day and get to know them outside the office.

However, it’s an essential part of forming strong alliances in the office. Making friends at work is all about replicating some of the things that used to serve us in our work lives within this new paradigm. For example, if you generally had a team outing on the last Friday of the month, coordinate team happy hours at that same time to celebrate the end of the workweek, says Cummings. The next time you’ve set up shop in your favorite cafe, chat with the barista or manager and get conversational. Tell them what you do and let them know that you’re always interested in meeting new people. We all know that one of the best ways to meet new people is to switch up the landscape.

Maybe your holiday pics will encourage a fellow traveller to stop by your desk to chat. Not only are you sharing your personality with your colleagues, you’re also showing elements of your personality that they could connect with. To find good friends, cast your net wide when it comes to seeking out people with whom you feel you would click. They could have something in common with you outside of work, or simply be someone with an appealing personality.

Show others what makes you stand apart from the crowd. Share a little bit about your background with new friends. Everyone has interesting stories to tell—don’t be afraid to share yours. One of the best things about having a friend is that you have someone to whom you can talk about anything, even secrets that you hide from the rest of the world.

Family Life

And hobbies can also help you connect with new friends who share similar interests. The celebrations and wins you have when involved in these pursuits will be all the more fulfilling. When you get to know someone really well, there’s bound to be conflict occasionally. If you get into a fight with a friend, don’t blame them or lash out.

Personal Growth

As increasing numbers of us work virtually (or for ourselves!), there are more people than you might expect hoping to make new friends outside of a workplace. Tell your new work buddies that you’re looking to meet some new people, and plan a small hangout where you each bring one or two friends from outside of work if possible. If you’ve recently moved to the area, or don’t have too many friends to bring, don’t hesitate to tell your understanding new work friend, as they’ll bring the party for you.

Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. So you’ve got a new Meetup group, and you want to kick things off. Make your first event a simple, light, short, and stress-free Meet and Greet. Looking to highlight one of your Meetup group’s events? A new feature will allow you to display an event at the top of your group page.