My friend Ante, a passionate Pokemon Go player (you know those people who run like crazy through the streets holding their cellphones right in front of their face?), quit his job a few years ago. The main reason he made that decision was a lack of challenges and the feeling that he had outgrown the position he had. But after just a few months in his new company, Ante returned to his old one. If you ask him why, he will tell you that he got a more challenging position and a better salary, but the truth is – he missed his friends from the company and simply could not cope with it.
A job where you find keepers is a job you stay at. Or a job you return to.
Let us look at the numbers…
Can a relationship we built with our colleagues play such a huge role in our job satisfaction? If we investigate the data of an extensive research – evidently, it can. Tiny Pulse agency questioned 20.000 employees from various companies about what motivates them in their workplace. The data shows that good relationships with our colleagues are the most important motivator in our jobs and a reason to put more effort into our tasks. You wonder where our salary is on the list – surprisingly, not even in the top three motivators.
The results seem a bit surprising, but if you really, really think about it – it makes perfect sense. After all, we are social beings and put immense value on the relationships we have with other people, both in our personal and professional lives. Neuroscientific research has shown that the need to connect with others is something we are born with. Additionally, when you study the principles we often base our friendship on, it is clear that the business setting is a perfect place for kindling new friendships.
The first principle is the proximity principle, which accounts for the tendency to form close relationships with those people who are physically close to us. Usually because we interact more with them, we see them more often and thus perceive them as familiar; and our brain interprets familiar as “good”. The second principle is the similarity principle, which suggests that we tend to form friendships (or more intimate relationships) with people who are similar to us. You and your colleagues have a good starting point: you work for the same company and with some of them you share your beliefs, attitudes, and the way you see the world. It comes as no surprise that workplace friendships exist in such a quantity that they deserve their own name. Have you ever heard of a work spouse or a frolleague (a friend, who is also a colleague)?
Virtual Water Cooler
In the context of our pandemic lives, isolation took its toll on various relationships, including the ones in the workplace. Or especially on them, since a significant number of employees started (and still are) working from home. We conducted a brief survey in Ekobit regarding work from home (WFH), its benefits and downsides. It turned out that most of our employees missed communicating and hanging out with colleagues the most. One cannot deny that communicating live is usually easier, more natural, and enjoyable than communicating via Zoom, Microsoft Teams or whichever channel your company uses. From low-quality wi-fi and other technical issues, misinterpreting non-verbal cues, to simply having a feeling that it is miles away from live communication. Although WFH can have a lot of benefits (hello, comfy clothes all day!), most of us need live communication from time to time: a meeting face-to-face, coffee break in your company’s kitchen, or at least a spontaneous water-cooler chit chat.
Since we started working from home, Ekobit has tried moving old habits into a new setting and creating space for unwinding and informal connections with our colleagues. Virtual water cooler, whose only purpose was to encourage informal talks on diverse topics, has been born. From movie recommendations to recipe exchanges or simply bragging with cute pictures of our pets and/or children. If you are thinking what a waste of time it is for the company, just remember that friendships and camaraderie in the workplace are our main motivators for going the extra mile. And you do not create such relationships while discussing who will take which tasks or getting involved in the never-ending discussions about microservices vs. monolith architecture.
With a little help from my friends
We can all agree that it has been a challenge to keep the quality of existing relationships while you are hiding at home. But what about creating new connections and friendships at the workplace? It sure is not simple but let us not call it a mission impossible. The least thing a team or a team leader can do is to organize a virtual coffee with a new colleague where they can go beyond discussing just business stuff and try to get to know the colleague a bit better.
Another idea we put in place at Ekobit is assigning a buddy outside of the team of the new hire whose purpose is to serve as a point-of-contact regarding all non-project related questions. To foster casual communication, we are also occasionally organizing online (home) pub quizzes. They serve as a good substitution for an after-work beer on Fridays. For your company, it does not have to be a pub quiz; anything you can come up with that will bring people together in a relaxed atmosphere should do the trick.
So, at this point, you are probably wondering – what the hell this wall of text has to do with Pokemons?
I will be honest with you, not much. But I needed a catchy title. And the only Pokemon Go player I know, my friend Ante from the beginning of the story, is also my ex-colleague.
A job you leave behind is kept in good memory if you take friendship(s) with you as a souvenir.
