At Franklin Professional Associates, we are acutely aware that a thriving workplace is built on strong performance and that genuine human connections are a cornerstone of consistent, company-wide success. One of the most influential, and sometimes underestimated, elements of these connections is friendship within the workplace.
Growing up, my father was a director with dozens of direct reports. I recall him giving me advice when I first became a manager. He advised me to “be friendly, but don’t be friends with your subordinates”. It was a tough piece of advice for me to follow. Even the term “subordinate” bothers me. Now, almost 20 years later, I have seen both sides of the coin. Having toiled with the pros and cons of friendships in the workplace, I learned something that served me well across all relationships in my life. That is, the importance of integrity, authenticity, and congruence of character. More simply stated, when you are the same person in private as in public, whether interacting with the CEO or the person in the lowest level of the company, there is little chance for workplace friendships to be a problem, and the upside of workplace friendships far outweighs the risks.
Kahlil Gibran is quoted as saying, “Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity”. Friendships are the ties that bind, evidenced in the workplace by organizational psychology and human resources research showing that workplace friendships positively impact employee engagement, performance, and retention. According to Gallup, employees who say they have a best friend at work are not only more engaged—they are 7 times more likely to be fully invested in their jobs, and teams with strong friendships perform 20–25% better. As a recruiter for 25 years, I can tell you that people within the highest performing teams are the most difficult to recruit away from their company. I believe the reason may lie in the fact that a culture encouraging of healthy friendships fuels job satisfaction and inspires team members to bring their best selves to work every day. The decision to stay or go becomes less logic-based and more based on emotion, which, in this case, is strongly leveraged towards staying.
Here at Franklin Professional Associates, we’ve had more than one conversation about what we would do if the world imploded and we lost the opportunity to do this work. (Yes, we have had our moments when world uncertainty weighs heavily!) We always say, “we don’t know what we would do, but we would do it together”. As Jim Collins says in his book “Good to Great”, it’s “First who, then what”. We hope you are as blessed as we are to enjoy weekend chatter with your work friends, look forward to Monday morning, and be inspired to be your best, not out of obligation, but sweet responsibility.
What are your thoughts? How have friendships shaped your experience at work? Have you seen them improve engagement or team cohesion? Or faced challenges balancing closeness with professionalism? We’d love to hear your stories and ideas—because together, we build workplaces where everyone thrives.
