How remote workers make work friends

New research found that employees who do their job virtually often experience virtuality as 'a barrier' to forming friendships with their colleagues.

Research has shown that workplace friendships are important to both our happiness and job performance: Employees who have work friends report being more productive, engaged, and satisfied. But thanks to technology, having a friend at work has changed in two key ways.

In this story published on Nov. 29, 2019, in the Harvard Business Review:

First, we are less likely to live close to our coworkers. Second, we increasingly rely on technology to communicate with our colleagues. Given these fundamental differences in how we relate when working virtually, remote colleagues become friends when they understand who that person is and can predict how they will interact with them.

– Kevin Corley, chair and professor of management and entrepreneurship

– Blake Ashforth, professor and Horace Steele Arizona Heritage Chair

– Former PhD student of management Beth Schinoff, who is an assistant professor of management and organization at Boston College Carroll School of Management