5 Ways Of Bonding With Your Work Colleagues

You spend nearly as much time at work as you do with your family and family, if not more. But work relationships can often be a lot more distant than those you have with your friends. It doesn’t, however, have to be this way. While it’s important to be professional with your colleagues, work can be a lot more fulfilling if you get along with your coworkers. It makes work fun, it makes office more interesting, and it even makes you more productive. Here are 5 ideas to bond with your work colleagues.

1.Office parties: These are the easiest way to break the ice. At office parties, you can let your guard down, and discover who your colleagues are outside of their work personas. The parties can be of any sort, anything from a Diwali party to a Halloween party, but they’ll help you discover your coworkers better. And when you get back to work the next day, you’ll realize that you know your coworkers are lot better than before.

2. Team building games: Most employees roll their eyes at “team building games”, but they can be a very effective way of making friends in office.  Team building games, if done right, can build camaraderie, help you understand your coworkers, and bond with your colleagues. There are several games you can play, including Zombie Escape, Airbands battle, The shrinking weasel, and others, or you can get a professional to organize these games for you.

3. Wagers: One way to bond with colleagues is through common interests, and there’s no better way to do it than the old fashioned wager. You can do friendly bets on everything from sports to politics, and the discussions and the ribbing that follows will help you know your colleagues better. You can either do friendly wagers among themselves, or make things all official, and go through a professional. 

4. Team offsites: While you spend most of your time with colleagues in office, you can really get to know a different side of your colleagues outside office. Team offsites are a great idea for this — you can either go to a restaurant, to a resort outside the city, or even travel to a different place altogether. Being out of the office environment will really help you discover sides to your colleagues that you didn’t know existed — someone could be a great surfer, or someone could be great at scrabble. A trip out of office, no matter how long, will help enable this.

5. Just walk up to people’s desks: If all these ideas seem too contrived, do what’s simple. Just walk up to people’s desks, and strike up a conversation. You can talk about something related to work, and slowly work your way towards other topics. You’ll be surprised to know much people would want to talk, and you can make some friends for yourself in the process.