Can't argue with science...
Having friends in the workplace has always been essential if you ask us – you need someone to unload on during a personal crisis, have a quick coffee with to catch up on the office politics and send Harry Potter quizzes and memes to when post-lunch procrastination hits.
Of course, we never thought of these things as actually beneficial to our work – as much as we love them, our work spouses are a constant distraction and if anything we thought they slowed us down.
But according to a recent study, having close work friends can actually be making you more successful. Yes, really - and it has nothing to do with networking and making professional contacts.
Think about it – work friends are there for bouncing ideas around with, calming you down after a passive aggressive conversation with your boss and being the voice of reason, offering tried and tested work advice.
The recent study, carried out by Harvard, looked at 168 employees at an insurance company, evaluating the effects that office friendships had on their work – and their findings were pretty interesting.
According to their research, work best friends ‘significantly increased employees’ performance, as judged by their supervisor’.
The study found that having a work wife made employees more clued up on the office systems and allowed them to learn more, with the researchers revealing that the workers were much more likely to seek help or ask advice form someone that they were friends with outside of the office.
In fact, having a best friend in your office is said to make you just as happy as receiving a six-figure pay rise.
So that’s settled. Work wives are completely necessary.
Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re off for a coffee with our office BFFs – for the sake of our work.
