Q10. I have a best friend at work.

**Summary**

-   Encourage healthy relationships among co-workers.

-   Understand the human need to connect with peers.

**Key Findings**

*"We're a family. That sums it all up. We treat each other like family.
We\'re there for each other. We help each other. We\'re a family."*

Work is a social institution where long-term relationships are often
formed, from networking relationships, to friendships, to marriages. The
evolution of quality relationships between people is a normal process
and is an important part of a healthy workplace. And trusting
relationships with co-workers are key traits of retention. It is common
for employers to pay significant attention to the loyalty employees feel
towards the agency, but it is also important to recognize that loyalty
also exists among employees towards one another. The quality and depth
of relationships that employees have with co-workers is a critical
component that often affects their decisions to stay or to leave.

Strong relationships also lead to the kind of trust in which employees
believe that their co-workers will help them during times of stress and
challenge. Many FSA managers seem to be aware of this.

*" If I\'m not at my desk, I\'m only one other place normally and it\'s
because I consider that person my best friend and I feel like I can
share and sometimes I have to share. I know that with her, I can share
anything and that what we\'ve shared is between us. We have a lot of
trust."*

We learned that FSA's best practice managers support friendly
relationships among team members. They try to maintain a collegial
atmosphere in which co-workers form bonds. These bonds do not have to be
intimate or even necessarily personal in nature, but simply, "someone I
can talk to, shoot ideas across."

Managers often think that friendships at work lead to lowered
productivity. Employees will sit around gossiping all day and not
accomplish their tasks to the expected level or not complete them at
all. Gallup research shows that the opposite is true, however. Given how
much of our waking time most of us spend on the job, it is truly vital
to work engagement that we have someone at work that we can trust,
someone who shares our values at least in the sense of commitment to
certain goals. That is what makes most of us get up every morning and
come to work; that's what makes the difference for many of us. FSA's
best managers understand this and are encouraging these relationships.

*" Our job is real stressful ... that doesn\'t mean to say that every
single minute of every day we\'re trying to deal with some kind of a
problem. If we don\'t just get up and get away from it and go tell a
joke or something, or get a hug and we\'re all good about that too,
we\'d be off a lot more because we\'d be dealing with all kinds of
problems. So I think that the fact that we do just get together and have
fun is a lot of the reason that we do get the job done as well as we
do."*

*" If we didn\'t have each other to depend on, to know that we can talk
to them about our jobs and what we do, we would be dead in the water.
There\'s no way any of us could finish, because there\'s not a person
here I haven\'t asked for help."*

In summarizing responses to this question, we found that great managers
in FSA: 1) encourage healthy relationships among co-workers; and 2)
understand the human need to connect with peers.

**Relevant Quotes From FSA Interviews**

If I\'m not at my desk, I\'m only one other place normally and it\'s
because I consider that person my best friend and I feel like I can
share and sometimes I have to share. I know that with her I can share
anything and that what we\'ve shared is between us. We have a lot of
trust.

It has a lot to do with if you have something in common outside of the
workplace with those people, people who have children, people who are
single, that have the same types of problems.

I don\'t necessarily have a best friend, but there\'s somebody that
works with me, I mean two or three people that I work around that I know
that I\'ve shared personal information with them.

I\'ve always felt like I\'ve been able to come to work and feel
comfortable sharing not only what\'s going on with me but anything else
that\'s going on at work too, that I have somebody to bounce things off
of.

\[A friend is\] someone I can talk to, shoot ideas across. It doesn\'t
have to be anything intimate, it does not have to be anything personal.

I\'ve worked with these people a long time so you kind of develop that
relationship, you get to know who you\'re dealing with

I like the true feeling of a team because everybody gets along, we\'re
like a group, it\'s like a family.

I have several \[best friends at work\].

Whatever personal relationship you have with a coworker as a manager
should not overflow into the work places because you don\'t want the
rest of (inaudible words) look at favoritism or anything like that.

You have somebody that you can go to vent when things aren\'t going
right.

You don\'t feel like you\'re alone. That\'s your vent, you know?

Know that what you\'re telling them will not go past you two.

She can yell at you and tell you to calm down.

Without \[trust\], it creates chaos and all kinds of sabotage and you
can\'t deal with real issues, you\'re dealing with things behind your
back.

It\'s not a best friend but we do have people we count as friends that
are supportive and that\'s really all within a work environment I think
is required.

Our job is real stressful ... that doesn\'t mean to say that every
single minute of every day we\'re trying to deal with some kind of a
problem. If we don\'t just get up and get away from it and go tell a
joke or something, or get a hug and we\'re all good about that too,
we\'d be off a lot more because we\'d be dealing with all kinds of
problems. So I think that the fact that we do just get together and have
fun is a lot of the reason that we do get the job done as well as we do.

Communication is so much easier when you have good relationships with
others. You can work through problems. You can talk them out and get
right to the bottom of the issue whereas sometimes if you don\'t have as
good of a relationship .... While work conversations are necessary, they
stay so much at the surface that you may not actually get down to the
bottom of an issue and be able to fully resolve it.

\[Friendship\] fosters that you have a working environment where you
feel comfortable and you can talk to somebody about work related stuff
but maybe also some personal things, and so when I answered that
question, I could say yes to a certain extent because I feel like I have
a rapport with everyone here.

I think with the passage of time, the fact that we\'ve worked longer
with each other, the trust and respect continues to grow, so I think
that\'s just an evolving thing.

I like the true feeling of a team because everybody gets along, we\'re
like a group. It\'s kind of like a family.

\[Teamwork\] is essential for our survival.

If we didn\'t have each other to depend on, to know that we can talk to
them about our jobs and what we do, we would be dead in the water.
There\'s no way any of us could finish, because there\'s not a person
here I haven\'t asked for help.

**Development Questions**

What does the following survey question mean to you? "I have a best
friend at work"

**Managers:**

Please describe the relationship you have with your associates (people
on your team).

Please describe the relationships in your workplace environment? Do you
believe it is possible for people who work together to get too close?

**Employees:**

Describe your relationships with your associates.

Is teamwork promoted at DAM/USDA? Is teamwork promoted within your
workgroup? What do you mean by "teamwork"?

Do you trust your associates? Do you trust your supervisor?