How easy is it to make friends at the work place? Some surveys even say that the work place is one place easy enough to find that special some one that you will spend the rest of your life with. A myth you may say, but this makes sense, we spend almost 60% of our weekdays (some even more) interacting with work colleagues.
Its never easy making new friends if you have just joined a company, and some times you may think people are your friends because, well they’re nice to you. Now that, is a myth!
Larger organisations tend to have a lot more politics and drama. I know this because i have eaten at both ends of the stick; smaller organisations are like family because you bond more when you are fewer. Back biting and stepping all over everyone , leaving stilleto heel marks as you make your way to the top is common when it comes to the big companies. Its like people spend their time scheming, strategizing and assessing how they can get to the top. One then wonders when they ever have time to actually work or to meet deadlines.
Friendship at work can at times be tricky, it may land you in:
- Very compromising situations that you are just not sure how to handle and have the potential to compromise your morals and values
- Ending up doing something for someone that you would rather not have done, but because you are pals at work, then scratch my back and I’l scratch yours
- Pulling someone else’s weight while they are busy attending to other issues which most times are not work related
Truthfully though i think being cordial, polite and friendly to colleaugues is more than enough. Think about it though, the minute you start getting to know a colleagues problems intimately, especially the personal ones then all of a sudden you begin to change your perception of how you used to view this person. This is what you begine to think.
So, Nina who had domes with her mbotch, all of a sudden you think she’s a mean mathee, afterall how can she pay her mbotch less than minimum wage yet you know all too well what her salary is? And she says she’s saved?
And Joyce could not stop talking about her boyfie and how he loves her so much he planned this fabulous gettaway to Naivasha though she truthfully is feeling Jamo from the downstairs tour company more but he isn’t as wealthy. ‘Kuumbe… i never knew what a gold digger this mama could be.’
I guess all i am trying to say is, though we may be different personalities you don’t have to try so hard for everyone at work to like you, i mean if you connect with one special someone great, all power to you, whats important is focussing on why you are there in the first place. To Work!