Professional Boundaries: Managing Friendships at Work

You can volunteer in community organizations and nonprofits and meet people who share your values and interests. Ironically, social media can feel little isolating at its worst, but at it’s best, it’s a powerful way to bring people together. Share an article you think they’ll enjoy, or, if you’ve been trading Twitter headlines for years, invite them to a book signing you’d both appreciate. One way is to be intentional about making friends, both in person and online.

We don’t do them very often but I find them to be very helpful in creating connections. I’ve shared my tips for working from home before which include the importance of communication. Obviously, if you are trying to build friendships at work, communication is incredibly important.

You don’t need to start communicating with people during training – it is better to devote this time to self-care and your well-being. This space is adapted specifically for freelancers and people who work from home. It’s a great place to communicate with like-minded people.

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It is necessary to leave the comfort zone, pass all new tests to gain confidence in yourself and your abilities. Try to make friends when you work from home, communicate with people constantly. Sooner or later, you will make your way to avoid loneliness by working remotely every day. This is a good opportunity not only to become useful but also to get emotional release and warmth, and meet some friends. Volunteering is a great way to meet nice people who care about others. Another interesting opportunity to make friends when you work from home is to join an interest group.

Tips on How to Make Friends When You Work from Home

We often think likable people are funny or smart or charismatic, but the secret to being likable is actually to like people. According to the theory of inferred attraction, people like people who they think like them. Co-workers will be more likely to want to be your friend if you show them you like them by doing things like greeting them warmly, speaking highly of them, and celebrating their success. Now that you have stopped talking about work, start sharing stories.

Tips to connect with your colleagues and avoid isolation

It’s fair to say that prize pot has gone up a bit since then, with Rory McIlroy’s win at Augusta this month earning him $4.2m how to make friends when you work from home (£3.1m). In tennis, a much more globally watched sport than snooker, the four Grand Slams on offer to men in the singles game come with prize pots in the millions. It’s common knowledge that high-level sport is a lucrative business, and it’s even more profitable when you’re at the top of your game in a solo discipline. Warned that, at this point, it’s safest to assume any Oasis tickets advertised on social media are fake.

Specifically, I think talking on the phone versus email or IM can really help. Being on the phone with someone facilitates ‘small talk’, which is really important in getting to know someone a bit better and to check in with them personally. “Some people either do not believe or desire to build the same kind of emotional relationship through technology as they would face-to-face,” she says. It is that simple sharing of experiences, sharing of knowledge that happens organically and through osmosis, when we interact with people in the workplace,” she says. Cafecito helps you unplug from your desk and engage in fruitful conversations by matching you with local remote workers who are like-minded and share similar career and personal interests. You quickly miss the natural connection with coworkers where so many of us ultimately find great friendships.

Give them their space, and consider connecting with colleagues who are more public and open to interacting on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and beyond. That colleague who’s always sharing recipes and photos of the gorgeous meals they make on their personal blog will probably appreciate your likes and comments on their posts. These simple tips will help you quickly integrate into society, make friends and valuable acquaintances when you work from home. Working in cafes or libraries is helpful because you can meet like-minded people without being tied to a place. It’s a unique chance to work in other cities to find business partners. Trust your friends with a blind date or arrange a group date.

The physical, mental and emotional consequences are serious. Some research indicates that loneliness might be as much of health risk as smoking. While there are countless upsides to working from home, there’s one consistent challenge — and it’s a serious one.

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This support network is particularly beneficial during challenging times, offering a sense of stability and reassurance that can be crucial for maintaining mental health. Between work, relationships, and just trying to keep life together, finding and maintaining meaningful friendships can feel like one more thing on the to-do list. But according to Erin Pash, MA, LMFT—a licensed therapist, Founder, and former CEO of Ellie Mental Health for over a decade—friendships aren’t just nice to have; they’re essential for our well-being. Many people who engage in hybrid work look forward to in-office or on-campus days to fill their social bucket, which may be depleted after days of working independently at home.

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If you do get to see your coworkers in person, it is important you make the most of your time with them. As always, good old-fashioned methods of connecting are important, too, Howe adds. Acknowledge others’ work and life events — both positive ones and those that are a struggle. These are many of the same tenets that are essential for in-person friendships, too. Connection doesn’t just happen over coffee or lunch, Kantor says.

• If you’re hustling toward a fitness goal, there’s undoubtedly a community out there sweating along with you.
• We are a leading choice for individuals seeking both professional growth and a sense of belonging in the virtual workspace.
• We explained how to make friends when you work from home quickly and effectively.
• These relationships can inject a sense of warmth and mutual understanding into the work environment, enhancing the overall atmosphere and making daily tasks more enjoyable.

Cummings has some great ideas about how to integrate phone calls into your professional life, even if you’re not used to it. “If a meeting ended five minutes early and you would have debriefed with a colleague, reach out and see if you can hop on a quick call,” she says. Pre-pandemic, talking on the phone felt like something we did way back when Facetime wasn’t a thing. It might be time to bring this retro fad back, because it cuts down on screen time but still allows you to connect with people in a more organic way.

We can also take comfort in the fact that our employers should be shouldering some of the burden and helping us to forge connections, too, adds Alan Price, CEO at BrightHR. ‘Companies should step up by organising social events.’ Just make sure you’re RSVPing ‘yes’ to them when those invites come around. Instead of relying on chance, take planning into your own hands and create opportunities to connect with the people you want or need to see. You do have to put yourself out there and be willing to speak to people at the events that you go to. Otherwise, it’s the same problem as working from home; you aren’t talking to anyone else. Look, making friends as an adult is hard, and the pandemic isn’t making things any easier.

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• One way is to be intentional about making friends, both in person and online.
• When traveling for clients, I also try to have quality interactions with my coworkers.

Friendships

However, if you are one, it can be an added advantage too. Being a social butterfly can have its perks, especially when you’ve recently moved and are looking to meet interesting people. You might think that making friends at work would be the easiest way to go about this, but it can be a bit tricky. Even though you see your work friends every day, it’s not always easy to find like-minded individuals that you click with. That’s why The Wall Street Journal recommends joining forces with other colleagues to make friends at work.

It’s easy to neglect your health and well-being when there’s always work to be done, but a constant high level of productivity doesn’t necessarily correlate with high wellbeing. Find time in your day or week for “microadventures,” short, local, affordable activities that offer novelty, excitement, and fulfillment. So, if the work wife is dead, perhaps she’s been replaced by a new, healthy, boundaried workplace era – and that’s okay by me. This gives those in your group who crave social interaction something to look forward to and it also helps establish some of time markers that we need as humans to stay happy and healthy. I don’t know about you, but I have had to be really strategic about creating a personal rhythm since the beginning of the pandemic. If you organize an outing that occurs at regular intervals, you’ll be doing everyone a favor.