Glady Baradaran started this conversation by say unequivocally yes. For her, having a best friend at work who she can send an eye roll emoji to during a meeting to feel the relief of having a shared experience is super important.

Dave Roberts agreed saying that having friends at work for the emotional support makes the day-to-day experience better. He also shared a personal story about how having friends at worked helped him get through the loss of his daughter.

Todd Karges brought in the idea of friends being able to provide and help create psychological safety that managers or the larger organization as a whole just can’t offer. Which might be a flaw in the organizational structure that employees have to figure out how to make that happen on their own with each other.

I followed up with the question, are friends at work different from friends outside of work. You’ll have to tune into our conversation for their answers.

Do you think that having a friend at work is important?

This panel enjoyed their time together so much they asked me to schedule them together again to answer the question, what if you don’t have friends at work?

Look for that conversation in the coming days.

(Apologies for Glady’s scratchy mic. She was able to get it sorted ahead of our next conversation.)

Connect with the panelists:

15 years of HR experience and a love for organizational development. Based in Canada.

Todd Karges: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddkarges/

Has a background in project management and building agile development mindsets.  He is a transformation and change management practitioner and a leadership development coach. Based outside of Toronto.

Dave Roberts: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-roberts-56690513/

Teacher, co-author of the book When the Psychology Professor Met the Minister and a bereavement support specialist

Dr Robyn Odegaard: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynodegaard/

AKA Mental MacGyver. My doctorate is in organizational business psychology with a concentration in sport and performance. I provide luxury level, high performance support and coaching to executives, founders, celebrities and athletes.

Want a summary of Quick Hits plus the links to the LinkedIn pages of each of the panelist in your in-box every week? Let me know where to send it: https://drrobynodegaard.com/quick-hits-notifications/

#QuickHits are designed to exercise your brain by letting you listen in on an unscripted conversation to get other people's thoughts on pertinent subjects. If you would like to join a conversation or have a topic you would like to hear discussed, please message me. https://www.MentalMacGyver.com