Want to enjoy your job? Then it's time to ditch the small talk

The Age

12-06-2025

Here's a statistic that might shock you: we will spend around one third of all the waking hours of our life at work. That's a third of our limited time here working alongside a random collection of people all thrown together by the allure of similar careers and industries.
Most of these strangers will float in and out of your life, becoming faint memories. A small minority of them, if you're lucky, will jump across the imaginary boundary to become real, lifelong friends outside the workplace.
Work is not your family (and never should be), however the relationships we form between 9 and 5 are still an important part of our lives. But how well do you know the people you work with? And by well, I mean, how much do you really know about them beyond where they live and what their children's names are?
If you want to improve your job, one of the best things you can is to improve your relationships at work, and there's a fascinating amount of research that backs this up.
Culture Amp, the Australian employee experience platform, recently found that employees who report strong team relationships are 39 per cent more likely to perform at a high level, and that a sense of belonging at work – a by-product of good relationships – boosts performance likelihood by 31 per cent.
'The evidence is clear that meaningful workplace relationships drive performance, innovation and retention,' says Justin Angsuwat, the Chief People Officer at Culture Amp.
Building stronger relationships doesn't happen accidentally. It takes a little bit of vulnerability and a commitment to honesty.
'Every leader wants a high-performing team, but as leaders we usually only focus on outputs, metrics, deliverables and deadlines without focusing on the human dynamics that drive those results. Our research showed, time and time again, that those dynamics, particularly strong relationships at work, aren't just a nice-to-have, they're really quite foundational.'
There are many ways you can strengthen your relationships at work, like spending quality time with colleagues, creating memories outside the workplace, and striving together towards common goals.