Relationships at workplace

From the gamut of different relationships that I have come across, I believe relationships at workplace are the most complex one. The complexity attached to this equation is attributable to multiple factors and decoding this entails tons of maturity. Logically, if we see today’s working conditions, an individual spends most of his/her life in office. It’s quite obvious that if we spend considerable time with folks in office, we tend to get closer to them than anyone else especially when the workplace is not in your hometown. It’s also obvious that we will carry similar emotions for them that we would have for our near and dear ones as they fall in the same bucket but from a different source.

Healthy relationships at workplace have countless benefits and can surely generate better results than it would generate otherwise. This works even better if it’s a team work and most/all of the team members are known to each other before the kick start of the project. This simply means that the team can save time in on-boarding & getting to familiarize with each other. Team members will know and easily grasp/adapt to the working style of the other members which is mainly driven from their acquaintance. The best thing about this arrangement is the excitement amongst the members to work with their besties and to get away with the hassles of working with someone whom they know partially or don’t know at all.

It’s a known fact that if the members are absolutely comfortable with the working environment, they tend to give their best as they don’t carry the baggage of apprehensions relating to other team members.  Also the members get along well for work purposes as well and are not hesitant to share their views or voice out routine challenges/issues, if any. This further strengthens the teaming between different members and diminishes the possibility of people issues which is one of the most common epidemic and can create a dent on the smooth flow of the project. Till the point we talk about healthy relationships, it has countless benefits and surely better than any other arrangement. But I wish life was as seamless as it seems to be.

The same arrangement can be equally complicated and hollow if we see things outside the project output. We should also be mindful of the fact that independence is an indispensable pre-requisite of any organization/project/work arrangement. Independence is presumed to be hampered the moment any relationship is established/known like sibling, husband-wife and any entity would make sure to place them separately in a way that they don’t cross ways with each other. But why is this done? What if two sisters or husband-wife working together can produce best results? That simply means that there is something much more important than the work productivity. If the independence can be hampered for established/known relationships, it can surely cast shadows on other equations like close friendship.

Imagine someone appraising his wife, interviewing his brother, allocating work to his son, providing feedback to his best friend etc. Can we assume that all of these scenarios are as normal as any other appraisals/interviews/work allocations/feedbacks? The answer may be yes but no one would advocate this and would consider the outcome to be objective. That’s one of the grey area which makes relationships at workplace quite toxic and raises eyebrows from everyone irrespective of the level of objectivity maintained. Sometimes the safest bet to avoid an issue is to avoid the situation which can create the issue.

I have come across many cases where members themselves raise hands requesting for change of arrangement as they sense compromise of independence at a very early stage. I strongly feel that if someone is genuinely interested in one’s career and in a close relationship, the smallest favor they can do to everyone is to avoid working with the concerned person so that no one is prompted to question the arrangement and also they can be relieved of the pressure for not being objective. Maintaining healthy relationships and independence is the moral responsibility of every personnel and more we embrace it, lesser is the probability that it will have adverse effect on anyone!!!

Disclaimer: Nothing written in this blog has reflection of any individual known to me/place of my work. It’s purely based on experiences we come across quite often and share with each other.