Talking To Workmates

Your work situation can be a forced social situation. We tend to spend more time with our workmates than our family or friends.

Good chemistry & awareness of irritating habits are vital.

Most people find they have an annoying workmate. Here are some steps to ensure you aren’t the annoying one to work with, and instead are someone who people can forge a genuine friendship with.

1. Don’t spend more time telling everyone how busy you are than you do actually working. People don’t appreciate the irony. If you spent that time working, you wouldn’t be busy at all.

2. Don’t complain about everything. It creates a negative environment with you as the source. You don’t want to be a drama queen. Work is work, you wouldn’t be getting paid if it was 100% fun. Try not to indulge your gripes. Don’t complain just because you have something to complain about.

3. Hang out with workmates outside of work. For some, this can seem counter-intuitive. You already spend all day with these people, so why would you want to spend more time with them? But people can have a different frame of mind when in a relaxed situation, and you will see the true them. And that in turn will make them better company when you are back in the work environment.

4. Give workmates permission to veto your annoying habits. If you have a potentially annoying habit then be the first to mention it to your colleagues and ask them to let you know if it’s something you need to stop. This will make it less awkward for everyone if the issue does need to be discussed. For example, perhaps you enjoy eating tuna sandwiches at your desk, ask those around you if it’s too smelly.

5. When you are in a social situation with a workmate, don’t discuss work. It can be easy to discuss work because this is your normal default topic. Use Awkward Silence’s conversation starters instead. Discover another side of them.

Foster a better friendship with those you are forced to be with. It will make work less of a chore.

Let’s talk.