Why Connecting With Coworkers Matters

Office culture is rapidly evolving as Millennials, such as myself, continue to fill positions within companies, and Gen Z enters the workforce. The days of "company loyalty" may be ending as employees increasingly seek a work/life balance. Working has taken on a different meaning to us as we see our jobs and careers as a means to enjoy the life we want. We work to live, not live to work.

Making Connections

While this may be true, it's also important to make meaningful connections with those we work with. You are not required to be friends with your coworkers, but to seem them as objects to tolerate while we work isn't great either. This can lead to feelings of resentment or indifference about those we work with which can affect our performance.

Making meaningful connections with our coworkers can only benefit us. It helps the slower part of our days go by faster, as well as improves our mood. As I mentioned before, no one is saying you need to make friends at work, but having a bad day at work or needing some extra help with a task is much easier when you are familiar with your coworkers.

The Activity Matters

Pizza parties at work and uncomfortable icebreakers wont do the job. I would even surmise they never did. Work is already hard enough, and by the end of the day, most of us just want to go home. If companies want teams to connect and build team unity, it's going to cost them to facilitate that.

Outings such as team lunches, cocktails after work, or maybe even something fun and creative such as an escape room are excellent ways to get your team together and socialize. Living is expensive today, and chances are, not many of us are willing to spend our own money to hang out with those we work with right away. Having the buffer of being on the company's dime reduces that financial stress and makes entering these situations much easier.

Natural and organic interactions with those you work with create genuine feelings or appreciation and understanding. We begin to learn about our coworkers as people and not just as "the person who deals with the vendors".

Benefits

The benefits of interacting and making connections with coworkers as people are far reaching. Apart from improving the way we feel about going into work, connecting with our coworkers makes it much easier to collaborate on solutions and improves overall communication between the team. Something that I personally find incredibly important to a team's success. Connecting with coworkers also builds much stronger trust and comradery within the group. Work is much easier when you can rely on others for help in a pinch or can depend on them to finish their portion of the work for the day.

The Right Environment To Connect

As we all know, work isn't always fun. It's hard and stressful, and sometimes, we don't even want to be there. An environment is everything to keeping us happy while we "work through it" so to speak. Having meaningful connects is very helpful, but so is the physical space you work in. Here at Village Workspaces, we spent years doing research to design our space in such a way that it's accommodating to all types of workers. Wether you like to work quietly and independently or out in the open surrounded by other coworkers, theres space for you. We supports teams of all sizes from single person start ups, to multi-million dollar companies. Village Workspaces provides the space for you team to work effectively and efficiently and build those meaningful connections through our various member exclusive events and social gatherings.

Book a tour with us today.