The Importance of Working With People You Like

An average person spends approximately 1920 hours a year at the workplace. 

Let me break it up for you: it’s eight hours every day, making it 40 hours a week and 160 hours monthly. 160*12, and there you have it, 1920 hours every single year! That’s a significant chunk of our lives.

Imagine all those hours getting dreary and heavy just because you don’t like a coworker, peer, or boss. The people you work with or have around you affect the workplace’s vibe. How you feel about getting ready and going to work daily is the tell-tale sign of the work environment.

Why Working with People You Like Matters?

I’m a big fan of job satisfaction. As I have reported here before, the research evidence consistently shows that individuals satisfied with their jobs are more committed, better organizational citizens, and even better performers. The evidence also suggests that organizations with satisfied employees outperform disgruntled ones.

Here are four reasons why working with people you like can make a difference:

1. Transparency

When we are welcomed as part of a team, we feel valued, as if all employees are equal. This results in motivation and a desire to perform well at the job.

Spending time with a coworker working on projects, hanging out during breaks, or conducting meetings with people we like fosters feelings of trust and mutual respect.

2. Focus Towards Goals

When employees have positive relationships with one another and their bosses, open communication facilitates growth and a clear direction toward the organization’s goals. 

People find out-of-the-box ideas to achieve goals. They are more productive and motivated as they feel valued and heard in such a positive environment.

3. Up for the Challenge

A team that is built with trust and mutual respect is ready to take on any challenge rather than being deterred by it. They also find innovative solutions to every problem and are more willing to take on challenges, like major organizational changes, budget constraints, etc., by management.

4. The Culture

In a positive atmosphere, employees feel their opinions, values, and behaviors align with the employer or organization’s goals.

Work begins to feel less like a burden because everyone works together, and their personal goals become the same as those of the organization. So, of course, you get an all-around productivity boost, creating a culture that fosters growth.

Effect of Job Satisfaction on Work-Life

If you are a manager and are not paying attention to job satisfaction, you are making a big mistake. It’s one of the easiest KPIs to look out for and observe in employees, and there is a lot of good evidence-based advice on how to improve job satisfaction.

A study published in 2010 in the Journal of Vocational Behavior suggests that how people feel about their co-workers affects their job satisfaction. The interesting thing about this study is that it went on to show that satisfaction with co-workers affected overall job satisfaction and daily satisfaction with life. If you like the people you work with, you are more likely to be satisfied with your job and ultimately more satisfied with your life.

The research also showed that the effect of work on life satisfaction matters more for some people than others. If you are warm, generous, cooperative, unselfish, and trusting, you have an agreeable personality. The study found that the relationships between co-worker satisfaction, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction were even more pronounced for people with agreeable personalities.

The implications for individuals are obvious. If you don’t like the folks you work with, you probably also don’t like your job, and that affects how you feel about your life. 

Your well-being matters. Life is too short to work with and for assholes, and if you spend too much time around them at work, it could get even shorter for you. Hence, working with people you like is more than important!

Creating a Positive Work Environment

If you are a manager, you should focus on creating and maintaining a positive interpersonal work environment. Research shows that social job characteristics (e.g., interdependence, feedback from others, social support, and interaction outside of work) affect performance, commitment, and turnover. 

In other words, the decisions you make as a manager about workplace design affect how people get along with each other. If the people who work for you don’t like each other, the ultimate consequence will be on your bottom line. 

Conclusion

It’s natural when you love your job and the people around you; it creates an aura of trust and productivity. Everyone feels welcomed more appreciated and motivated. They seem more passionate about the job, the people, and the work.

As an employer, remember that happy employees are more likely to say good things about you and your business, and with the rise of social media, they have more opportunities to spread the word. 

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Bret L. Simmons, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Management at The University of Nevada, Reno. He earned his doctorate in Business Administration at Oklahoma State University. Bret blogs about leadership and social business at his website Positive Organizational Behavior. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.