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Why Friends At Work Are Good For Your Career and Your Wellbeing

This article was written by Dr. Tracy Brower, author of Critical Connections and published in Forbes.

You know how important friends are generally, but friends are especially powerful and positive at work. In addition to the obvious feel-good benefits work friends, they can also impact your career, your motivation and even your performance.

The job market is really tough right now, so considering your career and your future is wise. But it’s not just about professional growth. Wellbeing is also a factor. We spend a tremendous amount of our time working (of course!), so creating the conditions for a better experiences has huge payoffs in terms of less loneliness, greater wellbeing and better mental health.

The Debate Around Having Friends At Work

It’s important to start with a caveat that friendship can come in many forms. It’s up to you how much closeness you want (or don’t!) and how you define your friendships at work. Some people want a best friend. Others prefer more distance. It’s a range.

Ultimately though, however you define friendship, there are terrific benefits in having relationships with coworkers you value and colleagues you can count on.

How Friends Help Your Career And Wellbeing

These are significant ways that friends help us, our careers and our wellbeing.

Friends Help Us Improve

One of the first ways work friends can help us is by giving us feedback. To advance your career effectively, you need to know how you’re doing and know how you can improve. A strong relationship with a coworker allows you to ask for ideas on what you’re doing well and how you can do better.

A good friend sees our potential and has our best interests in mind. This makes them great for giving us information that will help us grow and advance in our careers.

Friends Give Us Confidence

Friends can also give us confidence to lean in and speak up. We understand ourselves through others. We know where we fit in on the team, we know what teammates need from us, and we appreciate the role that we play. This clarity can help us show up with confidence and strength, and these attributes help us in our careers as well.

We tend to value and trust others when they are “legible,” meaning they are easy to read. Of course you want to be open to learning and you don’t have the answers, but when you’re also firm in your convictions and confident to speak up, you’ll make an impression.

People will know where you stand. This is useful for career growth as others around you consider who they want to work with on the next project or who they want to involve in the new high-profile team they are forming.

Friends Help Us Engage More

Work can be stressful or demanding. But when you feel responsible to a colleague on a personal level it can help motivate and energize you. Work feels less transactional and more meaningful when it’s a friend who is counting on your deliverable or your follow through.

Friends can also give us a greater sense of purpose. Purpose tends to be something we experience with others and in groups. We show up with colleagues to do something meaningful. According to research at the University of Sussex, with a greater sense of purpose you’re likely to be happier and more productive. And Northwestern University found that a greater sense of purpose is tied to feeling that work was more meaningful.

Perhaps most importantly, when you have a greater sense of purpose, you’re likely to feel less lonely, according to research at the University of Pennsylvania. This sense of belonging is fundamental to wellbeing. When we’re more engaged and motivated by friends, we’re more likely to do great work. And great work is critical ammunition for growing your career.

Friends Give Us Opportunities

Another lesser-known value of friends is how they connect us to opportunities. In order to advance your career, you have to know about potential new roles and others have to know about you.

By definition, friends are connected to others that go beyond our own networks, so they are likely to hear about opportunities that we don’t. And friends can be advocates for us as well, mentioning us, giving us props and recommending us for the next big thing.

Friends Can Boost Our Health

When we’re at our best in terms of our wellbeing, we can show up with strength and perform better as well. Friends make a huge contribution here.

Multiple studies conducted at Brigham Young University found that having a few close friends drove health outcomes and had positive effects on blood pressure, heart health, cancer, dementia, depression and anxiety. The effects of friendship were greater than exercise or dieting habits, and they were about the same as smoking. Moreover, one of the primary places we make friends is at work. When we’re healthy, we can invest in ourselves and our careers, as well as in supporting our friends.

How You Can Give Back To Friends At Work

Friends and positive relationships with colleagues can help us in all kinds of ways, but we feel most fulfilled not only when we’re getting, but also when we’re giving. We want to help others and we want to respond in-kind when others support us. Friends give us with the opportunity to matter to someone else. This sense of significance is important for our wellbeing.

Whether you have deep bonds with best friends at work or just have good relationships with those coworkers you can count on, the value of friends at work is significant. And great friendships are something you can build by reaching out to others, investing time in getting to know them, and doing great work together.

Dr. Tracy Brower is a PhD sociologist studying community, happiness, and the future of work and life. She is the author of The Secrets to Happiness at Work and Bring Work to Life. Her new book, Critical Connections, is available for preorder and will be published in March. She is the vice president of workplace insights with Steelcase and a senior contributor to Forbes and Fast Company. Her work has been translated into 25 languages and her TEDx talk has been viewed 8.6 million times. You can find her on LinkedIn, X, TikTok, Instagram, or at tracybrower.com. You can sign up for Tracy’s mailing list here and Tracy’s LinkedIn Newsletter, Connecting the Dots, here.