Loving Your Work Colleagues

You spend more time with them than possibly some of your most loved ones. They’re responsible for your life -- your safety and health -- to a certain extent, and they also know you better in some ways than you even know yourself -- they are your work mates and colleagues. A work colleague of mine told me a story of how the death of one of his co-workers in a non-work-related accident affected him almost as much as it would have had he been one of his own family -- this guy was part of his family.

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Yet many grizzle and grumble about their co-workers, not having much good to say about them, even loathing time with them. It’s true that some work colleagues may be difficult to get along with. Not everyone is the same as us. There are so many different value-sets, senses of humour, personalities. There are also the competing priorities and a seemingly endless stream of conflict with some people.

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In almost any work situation with people there are going to be both positives and the negatives. All relationships have their upsides and downsides. They're flawed as we’re also flawed. We can see these situations more positively or more negatively -- it’s our choice.

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We have a choice about the relationships we have at work don’t we; do we choose to enjoy our work, and more precisely, enjoy the people we work with, or do we withdraw into ourselves and make the least of our opportunities with them, and just plod on with the tasks at hand?

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The choices we make to love and enjoy our work mates and colleagues are always good choices -- not just for the recipients of our love and friendship; it’s very much for ourselves too. We work many hours a week with the same people, sometimes for years, or even a full lifetime in some instances.

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Keeping our relationships at the ‘responsible’ level (and not getting involved personally when we’re not invited to) and also free to expand within the context of friendship at work is a huge benefit to a work team. Bonds of trust develop. Trusting relationships mean communications barriers are subverted and performance is augmented.

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But by far the biggest winner is people themselves! How amazing is it when we can truly enjoy real people in real situations at work. We should get to know our co-workers. We’ll never know what blessed friendships that could grow. And we’ll be the winners personally!

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This article was inspired by Gary Matier.

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Copyright © 2008, Steven J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.