How To Build Communication With Your Co-Workers

You know, they say that we often spend more time with our co-workers than with our loved ones. There are many nuances to communication in a professional setting, but no one talks about them when you are applying for a job. 

And they should, because interactions in a workplace are very different from interactions with your friends, acquaintances or family members. So you have to be aware of this.

If you disregard this, you’ll risk spending 8 to 10 hours daily in a psychologically unfavorable environment, and your work interactions will result in conflicts, tension, and misunderstandings with your co-workers, and we wouldn’t wish that to anyone.

Job satisfaction depends not only on your income levels, but also on your relationships with your co-workers and bosses. When the psychological situation in the office is unhealthy, the employees have an increased risk of burnout or psychosomatic illnesses.

One of the main dilemmas of any workplace communication is whether you should be friends with your co-workers or maintain strictly professional relationships. The truth is always in the middle. It may not be the best idea to try to be friends with all of your co-workers, but it’s an even worse idea to see each of them only as competition. The win-win tactic here is to learn how to maintain good relationships with your co-workers, learn to cooperate and compromise.

You can argue, of course, that not everything always depends on you and your own behavior. Sometimes you are forced to leave a decent job because of the toxic environment. Nevertheless, you should always start with yourself: maybe it’s not only your co-workers that are doing something wrong?

In any case, you must always remember the 5 golden rules of workplace communication:

1. Do not overshare when interacting with your co-workers. In other words, don’t share details of your personal life, your medical issues or family conflicts with your co-workers. It does happen that a co-worker becomes your close friend, but it’s rather an exception to the rule.

2. Do not refuse help, but at the same time don’t let others ride on your back. As always, you have to keep a balance, otherwise, you’ll risk becoming a people pleaser and doing other people’s work, or you’ll risk being labelled as a bad team player.

3. Attend work events and corporate parties: that’s where you can enjoy positive informal communication with your co-workers.

4. Compliment you co-workers, but be sincere and don’t overdo it. It’s not hard — you just need to be more attentive to others.

5. Do not try to change someone else’s opinion on private matters: they are entitled to their own point of view. You may think that tattoos are cool and everyone can express themselves the way they want. Whereas your co-worker may think that “only people from the streets get tattoos”. You may disagree on this matter, but this doesn’t interfere with the workflow in any way. So think whether you really want to try to prove your point at all costs.

As you can see, these rules don’t suggest anything really new. They describe  healthy non-toxic behavior that will help you maintain good relationships in your workplace.