Friends Make the Best Coworkers

As the year draws to a close, we’re thrilled to be named one of “50 Best Workplaces for Camaraderie” by Fortune Magazine. Making the list represents our second Fortune award win this year.

This week our team ranked on a list of companies across the country including Yelp, The Boston Consulting Group and Radio Flyer.

Providing a workplace where people can develop friendships and camaraderie seems natural. Not only does it make work more fun and satisfying, it also provides value by driving productivity and trust within teams.

This win reminds me of a piece I read in the New York Times earlier this fall, “Friends at Work? Not so Much.” Although the article notes that workplace friendships are a falling trend (why?), it also cites research proving the impact of office camaraderie on our happiness and professional development.

Science shows that groups of friends outperform groups of acquaintances in both decision-making and effort tasks. And when friends work together, they’re more trusting and committed to one another’s success – spending more time helping each other to get more done, says the article.

Findings like these support our own company values. And in an industry as dynamic as PR, a sense of camaraderie is integral to our success.

This award is important to us, partly because our ranking is based on employee feedback on areas such as: how comfortable people feel being themselves, how friendly, cooperative and fun our workplace is, and the strength of our teams.

As we often say, “Our people are everything.” And we believe that building a work environment where employees connect with one another and can be themselves is important – not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because it is way more fun and makes the most business sense!