Published on: May 7, 2025 at 7:28 pm
Chatting at work about friends and family members, hobbies, favorite movies and songs, and the weather is just a waste of time, right?
Wrong.
Colleagues who reveal personal information and what they do outside the office can form stronger bonds with one another and can be more productive at completing collaborative tasks.
Academy of Management Scholar Kris Byron of Georgia State University said that allowing colleagues to learn personal information about you can highlight similarities between you. It can be the foundation fora more lasting relationship.
Byron and research colleagues Ashley Hardin of Washington University in St. Louis, Beth Schinoff of the University of Delaware, and Rachel Balven of Arizona State University published an article on this topic in Academy of Management Journal.
“Even if I find out that you’re different from me, I still know that you’re more of a whole person than what I previously assumed based on the sliver that I see of you at work,” Byron said. “Now I get to see more of who you are outside of the office, and that makes me feel more comfortable in my interactions with you, because I understand you better.
“I understand you more, and I see you more as a as a whole human person who isn’t just a cog in the machine,” she said. “Instead, I’m reminded that you are a real living, breathing human, and that’s really important at work.
“At work, yes, we get tasks done, but the way in which we get tasks done at work is through our relationships, and so having relationships with people forms the foundation for any work that gets done, and so that’s why it’s really important that we have strong relationships with people at work.”
