Organisations often talk about culture, but rarely consider the role that having friends at work plays in creating a healthy, dynamic and productive environment. There’s no doubt that workplaces are complex environments – bringing together a melting pot of people with varying ideas, assumptions, experiences, expectations and ambitions.
They can also be highly destructive. The damage that unhealthy work environments have on people and their mental well-being is well known. Some people believe that if a work environment is too collegiate, people stop challenging each other and consequently, ideas are not robustly debated. On the contrary, combative environments where a dominant person subjugates the ideas of others and it’s highly politicised isn’t healthy either.
The full article was shared in The Sydney Morning Herald.
