5 Areas You Can Work On To Become A Better Colleague

Creating and maintaining bonds with coworkers may sound easy, but it can get difficult—especially if you’re planning to understand each other better. Since they are people whom you spend about 40+ hours a week with, it’s important to have a healthy and established working relationship, right? And no, you don’t have to be close friends. All you need to build is a harmonious, professional relationship to comfortably and efficiently work with each other.

This leaves us to think of how to better ourselves and be a proper co-worker. Read on to know the areas you can improve to become a better colleague.

1. Greeting properly.

Though you are not a morning person, a simple “good morning” won’t hurt, will it? Small gestures like a nod or a smile to acknowledge greetings are also easy to do, and won’t take up too much of your time. This helps lighten the mood or tension in the office, especially if you’re new to the environment. When you do this, don’t select the people you greet. Every person you come across with deserves proper greeting, not just those with higher positions.

2. Conversing with people.

Asking your colleagues about their interests, whether music, books, or movies, can aid in lightening the office’s mood. Being genuinely interested in what they are talking about can help them become comfortable around you. You don’t have to be friends with all your coworkers, but caring for and respecting each of them is important. Conversing will help you and your coworkers remember that each of you is a person first, before an employee.

3. Avoiding critical topics.

Don’t bring up sensitive topics that can stir misunderstanding or conflict like religion, political views, and beliefs. You can converse about life outside the office if it’s necessary, but keep the excessive details to yourself. In fact, there are things you should not discuss at work. Building strong bonds takes time, so don’t rush it by oversharing personal information. 

4. Refraining from gossiping.

You don’t like it when people talk behind your back, right? You ought to return the favor by keeping it shut, too. Rid yourself of stress and malicious intent by focusing on work instead of negative, hateful rumors. Since this is rampant in any company, it is ideal to never engage in this activity. Opposed to what you think, you don’t have to please everyone. Focus on work and yield good results instead.

5. Being prompt and productive.

You will only achieve excellent results once you pay attention to how you perform as an employee. Are you replying to your emails promptly for efficient and effective communication? Are you meeting your deadlines? Being close to your colleagues is important, but being a commendable employee is as crucial, too.

You can work in these areas once you assess yourself. How have things been in the past months? Are you still working productively? The key here is balance. Pay notice to how you interact with others, and keep tabs on how you perform, too. By doing both, you won’t just successfully become a better colleague—you also become a person to look up to.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash