What comes to mind when you hear office best friend? Lunch buddy? Trusted collaborator? A confidant when you need to vent? All of the above? This friend may be the best part of your job—the extra oomph so everything else is doable. These relationships are a staple of corporate life and are a perennial barometer for job satisfaction and performance.
In 2022, Gallup published a study that indicates employees with office best friends are significantly more likely to be loyal to their place of work and recommend it to others. Furthermore, employees with a best friend at work are significantly more likely to engage customers and internal partners, get more done in less time, and support a safe workspace with fewer accidents and reliability concerns.
For years, office friendships have made better employees, and they still do. But now, companies might see more value in investing their resources elsewhere. It turns out the current workforce isn’t particularly interested in office friendships.
The sudden prolonged switch to remote work forced millions nationwide to quietly break up with their professional significant others. Zoom fatigue was settling onto a world of recently refurbished home offices–just more ash from the pandemic volcano–and workplace socializing and bonding were amongst the first fatalities. The Wall Street Journal reported the percentage of hybrid workers who claimed to have a best friend at work fell from 22% to 17% between 2019 and 2022. And they’re not interested in reconciliation.
A recent Capterra survey asked nearly 1,000 U.S. employees to rank the impact of a set of factors on their job satisfaction. Of the 14 variables tested, “relationships with coworkers” finished last. Gen Z participants ranked this factor the highest of any age bracket, but even half of that demographic said workplace friendships were “not at all important” or “minimally important.”
The Wall Street Journal spoke to Nathaniel Richards, a 22-year-old software engineer in Muskegon, Mich. Richards describes himself as outgoing and says he wants to expand his friend circle—just not at work. He worries that a coworker might react negatively to something he shares about his personal life, however banal, or relay it to a boss. “I don’t want to completely open up my life to people I have to work with,” he says.
The reluctance to become friends with colleagues might increase the cost required to forge those relationships. Google hired Lizzo to perform when employees returned to their Mountain View, CA offices. Microsoft’s return to office included music from local bands, beer and wine tasting, and terrarium-making classes. KPMG brings its 2,800-person intern class to a lake house training facility in Orlando complete with social venues and a gym. The New York Times reports that the accounting firm hopes in-person networking and socialization will inspire interns to accept full-time job offers.
These perks are generous. Still, in a room full of uninterested employees, all of this feels like the dollhouse maneuverings of a semi-desperate C-suite. Frozen plastic faces are mashed together as an executive mutters, “Now kiss” under their breath. It’s possible these events forged thousands of new connections, but it’s unclear if the message is landing. In response to the news of Google’s Lizzo concert, one Twitter user remarked, “Don’t all these ‘fun’ things just distract from the actual work? In essence, these employers have CHOSEN less productivity to bribe people into a physical location? This is counterintuitive, which means it makes total sense to the out-of-touch CEOs.”
Today, employers might see the productivity improvements they’re looking for by investing in their employees’ lives outside of work. In the aforementioned Capterra poll, “work-life balance” finished as the second most important factor for workplace satisfaction, and the decline of office friendships may be a byproduct of this more significant trend. Employers need to listen to their employees’ hierarchy of needs to deliver desirable benefits and optimize their productivity.
In newer business models that emphasize work-life balance, employees are encouraged to seek community and fulfillment outside the office so they can come back to work refreshed and ready to contribute. The popularization of the four-day workweek offers an exciting proof of concept. Since adopting a 32-hour week, ThredUp, an Oakland-based clothing company, has seen its voluntary employee turnover reduce by half. The company credits the revised schedule for increasing productivity in the office and says it’s been revolutionary when recruiting new talent. More than half the new employees at ThredUp said the shorter workweek tipped the scale in their decision to join. Buffer, a social media company, surveyed their team after they piloted a 32-hour work week and saw their employees’ autonomy and overall work happiness rise while stress decreased. The sample size is small, and the solution won’t fit every business model, but early results would indicate a four-day workweek makes employees far more productive and satisfied than an office best friend.
Companies that invested in maintaining hybrid flexibility have seen similar bumps in productivity. Airbnb adopted its live and work anywhere policy after seeing positive spikes in productivity from its remote workforce. The company allows employees to log on from home no matter where they live without any pay loss if they remain in their home countries. They can also work from 170 different countries for up to 90 days per country per year. Since implementing this policy, the company has observed a happier and more diverse workforce. The attrition rate of the company is at an all-time low and falling, and the company’s objective of hiring more women and under-represented minorities has received a boost. The company announced that it received more than 800,000 views on its career page after announcing this policy.
“The business has actually never performed better since we moved to this program,” says Airbnb CFO Dave Stephenson in an interview with NPR. “It’s working really well for us.”
For these companies and more, the solution wasn’t giving employees a reason to return to the office. It was giving them the freedom to pursue passions outside the office. A balanced work-life dynamic empowers individuals to maintain physical and mental health and is a crucial antidote to burnout, stress, and fatigue, fostering sustained productivity and creativity. Their employees are exhibiting heightened job satisfaction and engagement and are contributing to a positive organizational culture. Moreover, prioritizing work-life balance has helped these companies attract and retain talent and foster a more resilient and content workforce.
While history underscores the value of workplace friendships, they may no longer be an essential component of a fulfilling work experience. Gone are the days when you could build office relationships because many stayed at that employer for over a decade. Gone, too, are the lofty purpose-driven companies millennials once sought, where like-minded professionals could find their calling and community.
As corporations grapple with changing workforce expectations, we should view the diminishing significance of the office best friend as a positive development. It underscores the evolving understanding that employee satisfaction and success are multifaceted, and employers are beginning to create clear demarcations between work and personal life. In the modern workplace, the office best friend might be a vitamin we no longer need.
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.
