People spend around 1/3 of their lives working. Your work makes a major part of your life, and it’s important to stay satisfied with your job in order not to harm your well-being.

Although many people think about a perfect work environment as a way to stay happy at work, it’s also important to have good relations with your boss and colleagues. For this reason, most people tend to make friends at work.

However, don’t be in a hurry to win friends at work. If you can’t understand why having friends at work is bad, pay attention to the list of 4 reasons for it.

1. You Can Stay Focused on Your Work

Around 27% of people claim that one of the greatest distractions at work is co-workers stopping by.

If you have friends at work, it’s more likely they want to share their news, emotions, and ideas with you. And it’s hard to say ‘no’ to your friend if he or she comes to spend some time with you. At the same time, you might be busy with an important and challenging task, and you can lose track of mind once you’re interrupted.

On the other hand, having no friends at work is a possibility to stay focused on your work. It also helps to enhance work productivity which gives you extra points when it comes to standing from the crowd.

2. Climbing the Career Ladder is Easier

When you apply for a job, you think about your career development, right?

Having friends at work, it can become an unprofessional environment which means having fewer opportunities to get a promotion.

Let me explain:

You must be always happy for your friend if he or she got a pay raise.

However, the situation changes when you’re friends who are working together. It’s possible that both of you are up for the same promotion, but only one can get the job. In most of the cases, it’s proof that someone’s skills are better. And then one of you gets jealous, and it’s normal.

Climbing the career ladder means doing things faster and better than others. It also means being more professional and good at your job. Opportunities don’t fall out of the sky, so you have to run roughshod over other people, and especially if it comes to career growth.

3. You Feel Slighted

Let me start with one story…

When I was a trainee in one company, we were invited to take part in one HR training. Actually, I don’t remember the whole sense of the meeting, but I remember one case study:

Once employees of a company were given the possibility to write down any salary they wanted. It could be any sum on the Earth, according to their OWN desires and expectations. Then, they were gathered in a meeting room, and their boss told that everyone would get a salary they asked for. It caused a lot of good emotions until the boss disclosed salaries to the staff. Once people saw what others had asked for, they started being nervous, and they were not satisfied with the level of their NEW salaries anymore.



In fact, 38% of employees are somewhat dissatisfied with their current salary.

The bottom line?

People tend to compare themselves with others, and being friends at work, you might know others’ salaries, and then you can start thinking whether the amount of their work responds to their payments. In most cases, it can make the person who gets a lower salary feel slighted which leads to bad relations and envy.

Dealing with employees’ unrealistic pay expectations, it’s important to remember that people crave for earning more than others, not the exact number.

4. You Can’t Reach Your Full Potential

Being an ambitious person means not only craving for a more impressive job title but reaching your full potential as well.

When you set foot in the business environment, you dream of becoming a better worker whose potential can grow. However, many people have a fear of failure which prevents them from moving forward to achieving goals. This fear can grow if you don’t spend a considerable amount of time on self-improvement as we know: the more you practice, the better your skills are.

However, having friends at work, you distract from the work process regularly which reduces your potential. It’s easy: to achieve growth, you need to stay concentrated and focused. Thus, working hard is a key to success.

The Wrap-Up

The work environment is not the right place for winning friends. Obviously, you should communicate with your colleagues and there is nothing bad if you know something about their private life, but being too close with coworkers is a way to keep the same position for many years.

After all, you need to put your needs first if you’re an ambitious person to want to achieve career growth.

Have you ever had friends at work? Share your experience with us!

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