Since almost the beginning of management research, we’ve known that social dynamics affect workplace performance. Indeed, one of the pivotal questions of Gallup’s famous employee engagement survey asks whether respondents “have a best friend at work.” But while friendship at work always being a good thing is a strong assumption, recent research suggests that having a close friend in the workplace might be more nuanced than we assume. There are definitely benefits, but there are also costs.
Work Friends Make Us More Productive (Except When They Stress Us Out)
Having a “best friend” at work is often seen as one of the best predictors of employee engagement. But our work friendships aren’t always an unalloyed good. A study of 168 employees of an insurance company in the southeastern United States found that having a lot of coworkers who eventually developed into friends significantly increased employees’ performance (as judged by their supervisor). One possible reason for this was advice-seeking. If you have friends in the company, it’s far easier to ask for help without fearing you’ll be judged as a poor performer. But workplace friendship also came with costs, the biggest perhaps being distraction. Impromptu discussions and extended breaks for socializing may be slowly stealing time, making it more stressful to complete the work when we are focused. Having friends at work also triggered a higher rate of emotional exhaustion—keeping up with more and deeper relationships is tough. Those relationships can also be the source of stress when new opportunities, like promotions, present themselves. It’s much more likely that we’ll feel envious of people we’re close to. While the emotional toll itself decreased performance, the positive gains from having a coworker who is also a friend more than outweighed the negatives. Having friends also be coworkers might be a little more draining emotionally, but it makes us far more productive overall.