Workspaces are considered one of the places where a person spends the majority of his/her time. It is vital for the person to feel connected and comfortable with the environment as he/she interacts with a lot of people on a daily basis. Humans, being social creatures, need to have some sort of interaction in the form of friendship or acquaintanceship with their coworkers, superiors and subordinates. Any organization consists of people with different backgrounds, religion, age, personalities, set of values and expectations. Although maintaining a safe and healthy relationship between everyone might prove to be difficult with these visible differences and it could also result in various disagreements and tensions between the coworkers, but with appropriate and effective measures and initiatives taken by both, the company and the employees, this problem could easily be dealt with. According to various researches, having a positive relationship with the people you work with enables you to be more productive, innovative and creative in your work, which in turn leads to growth for both the individual as well as for the company. In addition, good relationships give an individual certain freedom and openness for a person to be able to focus on new opportunities, rather than keep in his mind occupied with unnecessary conflicts. Moreover, it will facilitate team based projects and the employees would be able to work effectively through a healthy discussion between them which can be only achieved with remarkable team dynamics.
Another good relationship can help you with your future and career as well. People need to grow and maintain their social and professional circle to help them along with their professional life. A positive relationship with coworkers also saves a person from having a negative impact on the mind as well as the body. A person can suffer from workplace stress because of the psychosocial hazards related to the atmosphere and environment, the person is experiencing such as, poor interpersonal relations and lack of policies and practices related to respect for workers (Stoewen, 2016). This could potentially expose them to psychiatric and physiological health problems, which makes it important for the companies as well as employed personnel to maintain good relationships with each other if they want themselves and their companies to flourish.
Many psychologists have identified the need of having an open and healthy relationship among the coworkers. They claim that the desire to be connected to others is one of the basic needs of a person to maintain interpersonal relationships, as it has a huge effect on mental health, physical health, health behavior and mortality risk (Umberson & Montez, 2010). Social interactions play an integral part in a person’s life and it can influence a variety of things for the person. Maslow, being on the famous psychologists, talking about hierarchy of needs where “Love and Belonging” ranks on the 3rd level. He explains that a person, after attaining the first two needs which are physiological needs and safety needs, a person needs family, intimacy, friendship and a sense of connectivity with other people. Gable and Gosnell (2011) stated that humans have separate reflexive brain networks for social thinking which means, having a close relationship is linked with a biological system which protects a person from adverse stress. Many researches which were conducted, resulted in stating that the brain releases oxytocin in response to any social exposure, which is linked to motivation and trustworthiness to support other people in the workplace. Dunbar in 1998, claimed that, when a person feels social pain in their workplace by feeling isolated and sad, a region of the brain is activated which is equivalent to physical pain a person can experience.
When a person experiences a healthy relationship with trust, cooperation and fairness, a region of the brain is activated which encourages a person to be a part of future interactions with fellow workers. This not only promotes workers confidence, respect and trust but also, the workers start having faith in each other’s work and abilities (Geue,2017). According to Heaphy & Dutton (2008), the body’s physiological processes are affected by the social interactions at work. Positive social contact improves immunity, neuroendocrine and cardiovascular systems whereas negative interaction with anyone at work would immediately decrease immunity, cardiovascular reactivity. Further, the person would have hormonal problems. To conclude, it is very important to maintain a healthy relationship at your work to have a healthy mind as well as body.
We can define the foundation of an effective relationship with these five qualities. Trust is one of the most valuable traits that a person looks into any kind of relationship. When you trust your coworkers and team, you form a bond which helps you with the work and communicating efficiently. With the trust, you’ll be more expressive about your ideas, criticisms or any problems you might face and easily resolve the issue. Mutual Respect is another aspect where we need to work, to build a strong relationship. When you respect and value other people, they would reciprocate the same. You work on the ideas and various inputs from each other which results in developing solutions based on both of your insights, wisdom and creativity. Mindfulness is necessary to have a reliable relationship as you should take responsibility for your actions and work. Openness is accepting people with different sets of beliefs, opinions and views and considering trying to understand it. For instance, if you and your coworker are from different countries, then you might consider that he/she might have more experience than you or any other member from the team in regards to the topic. It would not only strengthen the team, but also be informative and a new experience for everybody. Lastly, the most important aspect is open communication between the colleagues. Communicating via mails, text messages are common but one should emphasize on talking to their partners or team mates face to face. Not only is it more effective but it also helps you to have an honest, open and healthy relationship with each other.
Having a healthy relationship with the people you work with, eventually leads to a happy and satisfied life. Not only you are mentally free, but your body also thrives when you maintain positive connections with other people. The process of forming new bonds and relationships depends on both the employees and the company itself. The people need to have a positive mindset and should be open to associations with the people they work with. On the other hand, the companies should promote the social interaction between the employees by planning field trips, spaces where the employees would be encouraged to mingle with each other, set a good example in front of the employees etc because in the end, both the company and individual needs to grow and prosper to continue their lives and be content with it.
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