The is a great post Zac and would love to chat more about this in one of the next meetings. I like the breakdown and categorization of friends but I'm a bit disappointed on the final way to look at it use it, especially when it comes to co-workers.
Like you said "These interactions are imperative because you can’t make new friends, without them first starting out as Sudo-Friends." The main issue I perceive is that the majority of people put these sudo-friends (especially co-workers) in an immovable category and they lose sight of the possibility they can indeed become good friends or more.
My hope and dream is that we can all start changing our perspective about what the workplace really means and how we can be more open to transform sudo-friends into more meaningful relationships.
The coworkers one could be a piece in and of itself. It's a really complex relationship right?
The weird thing about your co-workers, is that they're your confidant and competition simultaneously. They're a subset of people where, being you whole self, is discouraged.
In many jobs they're also--through no fault of their own--a source of stress and envy.
In an idealized world we could all be one big happy family at work, but the reality is its much more like Game of Thrones than we care to admit.
How would you go about changing that? What's the very first step you think a company should take?
It definitely is a very complex relationship. This may be the case due to, on the one hand laws and regulations that attempt to keep dynamics in the workplace as objective as possible; on the other hand, the existing old-fashioned way of thinking that a job represents a place where you do something for exchange of money.
If companies start to change the approach of defining a company as a team or even better, a community, where we're all part of something bigger than us. Where the goal is not to get money in exchange of our service, but to actually participate in an important mission where we all contribute with our unique skills and abilities.
Similarly to the complexities of a romantic relationship, shifting the focus from "I take" to "I give" can make a big impact in how we understand the nature of work and co-workers. But the key is, this change can't come from individual contributors. The change has to come from the Leaders, which in my opinion, the world today is lacking high quality leadership.
Shouldn't at this stage of our evolution to be better than just seeing work as stressful, toxic, and just one thing to deal with? Or am I being way too idealistic?
The is a great post Zac and would love to chat more about this in one of the next meetings. I like the breakdown and categorization of friends but I'm a bit disappointed on the final way to look at it use it, especially when it comes to co-workers.
Like you said "These interactions are imperative because you can’t make new friends, without them first starting out as Sudo-Friends." The main issue I perceive is that the majority of people put these sudo-friends (especially co-workers) in an immovable category and they lose sight of the possibility they can indeed become good friends or more.
My hope and dream is that we can all start changing our perspective about what the workplace really means and how we can be more open to transform sudo-friends into more meaningful relationships.
The coworkers one could be a piece in and of itself. It's a really complex relationship right?
The weird thing about your co-workers, is that they're your confidant and competition simultaneously. They're a subset of people where, being you whole self, is discouraged.
In many jobs they're also--through no fault of their own--a source of stress and envy.
In an idealized world we could all be one big happy family at work, but the reality is its much more like Game of Thrones than we care to admit.
How would you go about changing that? What's the very first step you think a company should take?
It definitely is a very complex relationship. This may be the case due to, on the one hand laws and regulations that attempt to keep dynamics in the workplace as objective as possible; on the other hand, the existing old-fashioned way of thinking that a job represents a place where you do something for exchange of money.
If companies start to change the approach of defining a company as a team or even better, a community, where we're all part of something bigger than us. Where the goal is not to get money in exchange of our service, but to actually participate in an important mission where we all contribute with our unique skills and abilities.
Similarly to the complexities of a romantic relationship, shifting the focus from "I take" to "I give" can make a big impact in how we understand the nature of work and co-workers. But the key is, this change can't come from individual contributors. The change has to come from the Leaders, which in my opinion, the world today is lacking high quality leadership.
Shouldn't at this stage of our evolution to be better than just seeing work as stressful, toxic, and just one thing to deal with? Or am I being way too idealistic?