Work isn’t always someone’s favorite place to be. While some days are great and extremely productive, other days drag out and seem to take forever between the start and end of the day. Our coworkers are the people we interact with the most throughout both good and bad days, so having a bad relationship with one coworker, let alone multiple coworkers, will only serve to make your time at work worse. Focusing on building positive working relationships with your coworkers will not only increase your job satisfaction but also boost your productivity; letting bad relationships form and fester will only kill your motivation and lower the performance of your entire team.
To develop positive working relationships with your peers, consider working on the following characteristics.
Respect Each Other
In order to have a healthy relationship, no matter what the relationship or where you develop it, you need to build mutual respect between yourself and the other person for it to work. You get as much as you’re willing to give, and if you don’t listen to what others are saying, they won’t do the same for you either. Take the input and ideas of others into account when you’re developing strategies, and you’ll get the same treatment in return. With this respect, you’ll be able to work more efficiently as a team.
Don’t Waste Time
Just as your own time isn’t meant to be wasted by someone’s prattling, you shouldn’t waste your coworkers’ time if you can help it. Time is precious, especially in the business world, and if your coworker is busy with their own task, interrupting them for help on yours won’t build bridges between the two of them. Stick to the deadline set for your project so that you’re not only caught up on your own work, but no one else is negatively affected by your being behind. If you’re truly struggling, ask for help from someone who’s genuinely not busy.
Avoid Gossip
Falling into the tides of gossip can be tempting to do—who doesn’t want to know what’s going on around the office?—but doing so will only serve to damage your professional reputation and your personal relationships. Rather than talking about someone behind their back, speak with them directly; this way, any issues can be resolved as opposed to being left to simmer and become worse than necessary. As the saying goes, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”