There are two ways that you can really get to know someone – living with them … and working with them. The workplace is an interesting environment. You spend most of your time there, cry there, pass out on the floor from exhaustion there, deal with some r i d i c u l o u s people there, and maybe, just maybe, even have fun there. No matter where you work, what you do, or where you have worked in the past, I’m about 100% positive that you have developed some friendships along the way. At work, in the place I least expected, I found one of my best friends. If you’re still a skeptic, here’s a few reasons why a work friend can become a bestie.
You spend *literally* all day together.
This could go one of two ways. You either spend so much time together that you drive each other absolutely i n s a n e or that person becomes your source of entertainment for the entire shift. My coworker became my other half. When you saw one of us, you saw the other. Some workers in the other department even called us by a combined name because we were always together. I just knew when my work bestie had the day off, it was going to be a long, boring day.
There are SO many things to laugh at.
I’m sure that no matter where you work, you’ll find some crazy and ~interesting~ things that happen on a daily basis, but working in guest services, like my coworker and I do, the idiocracy is limitless. We honestly bonded over the wild things that we had to deal with together. I could write a book on the things that we encountered on a daily basis, and we actually joked about doing this. Work sucks sometimes, but finding ways to laugh at it with your coworkers just brings you closer together.
You’ll learn about all the things going on in their life, and vice versa.
Somehow, it’s easier to trust and vent to your work friends. Typically, they don’t know your background, don’t know your friends’ friends or your sister’s boyfriend’s cousin, and don’t have too many prejudgements about you. I always felt so comfortable telling my work friend about all the problems going on in my life mostly because I knew she would have an unbiased opinion, she was a really good listener, there was *plenty* of time to talk about everything, and luckily for me, we had a LOT in common. When you’re having a bad day or going through something, you can choose not to pick up your phone and call your usual girl gang, but you have to go to work. And if you have a good group of coworkers, they’ll usually be able to tell that you’re not being yourself, get you to talk about it, and hopefully, like mine always did, make you feel better.
Sometimes work can be ~the devil~ (Waterboy reference), but if you have a good team of people enduring it all with you, your work friends can really become your best friends. My summer job is coming to an end, and I’m actually a little sad, though I hate to admit it, but it’s because I’m gonna miss my best gal pal. But I know she’s still going to text me every week telling me about all the ~crazy~ things going on in her life. So, Collegiettes, I’ll leave you with this – if you’re having trouble finding good friends, get a job. No, seriously, get a job. It could surprise you with friendships you never would have imagined!