Frienship at work?

Yesterday's BT carries an article about declining friendship at work. Surveys carried out in the States showed that the percentage of people who said they have a close friend at work dropped from 50% in 1989 to 30% in 2004, though more recent statistics were absent. It went on to analyse the cause. Apparently most people now treat the office as a place to be efficient and not to form bonds, a place to be polite not personal. Moreover long term employment is no longer the norm and it is so common to jump ship every few years. At such energy to build friendship is better spent outside the office. Given the connectivity through various media, time is also precious to get the job done freeing more time to engage with friends/contacts outside work.

The article went on to say that jobs are more satisfying when there is opportunity to form friendship. When there is friendship in the office there is more trust, more willingness to share information and help one another which is beneficial for the company.

We baby boomers are luckier in that we did enjoy this type of comradeship in the 1970s to 1990s. Why, because many of us stayed with an employer for decades. Can you imagine seeing each other 8 hours a day, 5 days a week? We actually saw more of our colleagues than our spouse and children in our waking time. Moreover way back in the 80s work life was less stressful without email and office softwares. For example a legal contract took ages to complete starting with handwritten amendments on a typed first draft, sending the office boy to deliver the amended draft to the lawyer's office and then for the lawyer to make the necessary amendments and getting his typists to type out the whole document on a typewriter. Iterations went on forever. In addition there was no handphone; and a worker can literally avoid answering the direct line to buy time. Hence with so much time waiting for the next step to take place, what did we do? A lot of chatting and socialising of course. I don't know about the men but certainly the women had a lot to share about children upbringing, family issues etc. Family Day, annual D&D and year end parties were big events calling for working committees to be formed and much office hours spent in planning and execution, inclusive of working hours rehearsing for sketches and songs. In such a social setting can we not have close friends in the office?

Maybe I was lucky and the place where I worked attracted less ambitious people; but I think generally there was less back stabbing and scheming for positions at work then.  If achievement, power and affiliation are believed to be the 3 motivation factors at work, affiliation definitely played quite an important part.

Recently I received a surprise letter from my former company informing of their intention to form an alumni of ex employees. The thought of reviving that sense of comradeship springs up in nostalgic fantasy.Then I read about an increasing trend for companies like McKinsey and Chevron to build alumni networks. Such alliance and alumni networks can encourage "employees to invest in relationships even when they won't stay at jobs for decades".

So I will go ahead to join this alumni to prolong existing close relationships and to hopefully reignite some others.