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By Liz Quirin

Working on a Watercooler Relationship

Coworkers gather at the water cooler, in the cafeteria or maybe in the machine shop for a bit of conversation, maybe a coffee or a cold drink, but the goal, stated or implied, remains the same: relating to one another on some level — personal or professional. They share a few minutes of conversation before, in the midst of or after work. In fact, good relationships among workers enhances job performance.

The opposite is also true if relationships are strained. Think of the cooperative spirit of folks seated at a meeting when half of them are convinced the other half don’t know what’s going on in the company or in life in general. Those in one camp can’t figure out why that person was hired and more puzzling is the reason the person continues to work in the company. Petty rivalries escalate and lose proportionality. Not only the work but the people suffer, and the environment becomes toxic.

In our present economic climate with so many people losing jobs, we need cooperation and relationships more than ever, even if those relationships can’t prevent someone from losing a job. Maybe because offices are downsized, good relationships become more important since fewer people have to do more work just to stay even.

We can’t blink our eyes and change our minds about the people we wished would find a different job someplace else. Maybe they’re wishing the same thing about us. Being dishonest and pretending to get along, in the long run, won’t work either. Taking the staff on a retreat to bond and recharge batteries only works if everybody believes this is important. What could be worse than spending a weekend or even all day in meetings with people who don’t get along and don’t want to be there in the first place. It’s not a recipe for fruitful discussion and resolving problems.

We have to face a simple truth: Although a group hug won’t change basic facts about likes, dislikes and personal preferences, we still need each other; we need to be in relationship to one another, especially in a work setting, which sometimes more resembles a family than “a well-oiled machine.” We all know families have the strong, the weak, the truly annoying and the somewhat odd characters, all displaying various amounts of kindness, humor and possibly meanness in every encounter.

When relationships work, nobody seems to notice: Isn’t this the way we always work together? Perhaps it would be good to step back from any situation and look at the relationships so that we don’t miss the marvelous inner workings of people getting along. If we truly see how good life is when relationships are in balance, it may make our trips to the water cooler more meaningful.