Find Quick Friends at Work by Finding Common Struggles to Bond
Even if you don’t spend a lot of time together outside of work, it is important to have friends at work . If you’re having friendship issues, finding a common obstacle that you both have to deal with can help you build rapport easily.
When you’re in the trenches of work, your work friends are comrades you can lean on during difficult times. Making new friends can be tricky when starting a new job or just being shy, but in Psychologist Ron Friedman’s book The Best Place to Work, Friedman suggests that finding common struggles – however small – is not a fast track to friendship.
You may not even be working together directly, but there is definitely something in your workplace that you both will relate to. Once you get that done, you can start looking for other areas where there are common ground. You don’t want to be distracted by friendship, but it’s always good to have allies by your side to lean on during difficult times.
The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Unusual Workplace | Amazon via Business Insider