How good are you in handling a positive relationship with your colleagues at work? Is it harmonious or is it stressful at your workplace? Whether you are working in an office, in a production plant, inside a warehouse or supermarket, in a fast food restaurant or even in a cafe, it is very important to have a positive relationship at work towards your co-employees or co-workers because this might be the key for your long-term relationship with your job or company.
A few years back, I was connected to a company where I enjoyed the companionship of my office friends for eight (8) long years. When I was hired in that company, I told myself that I will be just staying there for three years because I have a personal career goal. But then again, the three years became 5, and then 6, and then 7 years have already passed and I seemed to be enjoying my work there together with my office friends. Until on my 8th year I made a bold move to assess my career and explore other job opportunities and leave my friends in the office behind. But that's another story.
During those 8 long years in my previous company, I made friends and a support group for all my office angsts. We also dined together after office, we ate together at lunchbreaks and chatted away like we didn't see each other everyday, we also loved watching movies together or just strolling in a mall after work. My office friends kept me sane and they made work fun and less stressful and that is why I stayed.
You can't control everything. Sometimes you just need to relax and have faith that things will work out. Let go a little and just let life happen. --- Kody Keplinger
A Healthy Workplace Relationship is the Key to Success
Having a positive and harmonious relationship in your workplace is always a two-way street. If you are stressed at work, it doesn't mean that your colleagues are less stressed than you. Believe me, they are, and you both share the same stress everyday. If you whine at work, your colleagues also might have something to whine about. But they just know how to handle everyday stress. Cope with your stresses together, talk it out, and work it out right away to relieve yourselves out.
A strong and productive team starts with a good rapport, a healthy working environment, and an excellent support group. But it doesn't happen overnight. It takes time to build a strong and healthy workplace relationship that you can get along with and love in the years to come. Here are some of the things that you can do to get that long-term healthy workplace relationship and aim for that big group success:
- Make time to build trust. Trust is the most difficult to gain when you are starting and also difficult to build when it is broken. According to Natalie Ledwell, a successful relationship, whether it's for business, romantic, or friend relationship, is (mainly) built on trust. So starting today, give your trust to someone in your workplace and earn their trust as well.
- Respect one another. Being respectful comes in different shapes and ways, it may be using honorifics such as "Mam" or "Sir", asking for permission to use ones things like a ballpen or a ruler, bowing to someone of seniority to you when you meet him/her across the hall, be constructive in one's opinion, or toning down your voice when talking to your boss or Immediate Head. Like they say, respect begets respect. So give respect to those who earns it.
- Listen to one another. Great leaders are great listeners. When a leader is a good listener, employees or co-workers respect them. According to Forbes.com, in a typical business day, employees tend to spend 45% of time listening, 30% of time talking, 16% reading, and 9% writing (Source: Forbes, 2013). Now, that's a lot of time listening to long meetings, really!
- Value gratitude. Employees tend to exit a company because they felt that their efforts are not being appreciated at all. Everyone of us wants to be appreciated even in the slightest thing that we did. So the next time you see a colleague in the hallway, don't forget to say "Thank you" to him/her and appreciate his/her work. Who knows? You might be saving your colleague to stay for another year with you in the workplace!
- Stay away from gossips. Workplace gossips is not a form of communication to your colleagues. It may be harmless in nature but gossips hindrance productivity and efficiency at work. Aside from that, gossips ruin a healthy workplace environment due to giving false information and saying hurtful words to one another.
- Learn to help and uplift others. If someone is struggling in their work, extend a helping hand. The workplace is always a venue for competitive employees. Everyday, we all compete for the greatness and success of our company. However, success does not come from one person alone, it is always a group effort. So if you are someone who is happy with the failures of others, something might be wrong with you. Learn to change your ways.
- Always communicate with one another. Lastly, but definitely not the least, communication is a key to progression. An effective and efficient communication tool can connect you better and gives you better results at understanding one another. Also, learn to communicate with respect and comfort towards the other person.
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