It's easy to dismiss coworker relationships as optional, especially in an era where work-life boundaries are (rightly) emphasized. But the people you work alongside every day are the foundation of your professional network. They'll be your references, your advocates, your collaborators at future companies, and sometimes the people who tell you about the job opening that changes your career. Building genuine workplace relationships is professional development that doesn't look like it.
Why coworker relationships compound
Your coworkers know your work better than anyone outside your immediate family. They've seen you handle pressure, solve problems, collaborate, and deliver results. That firsthand knowledge makes their recommendations and referrals more credible than almost anyone else's.
Research from Gallup's workplace studies has consistently found that employees who have strong professional relationships at work report higher engagement, better performance, and longer tenure. But the career benefit extends beyond your current role. When your coworkers move to new companies (and they will), they bring your name with them. The colleague who sits across from you today might be the hiring manager who recommends you for a role in three years.
This isn't calculated. It's cause and effect. Invest in genuine workplace relationships and they produce returns you never planned for.
The remote and hybrid challenge
Building relationships with people you rarely see in person is genuinely harder. There's no breakroom conversation, no walking to lunch together, no accidental encounters by the coffee machine. Every interaction has to be somewhat intentional, which makes it feel forced at first.
Start with the smallest possible effort. Turn your camera on in meetings. It signals engagement and makes you a face rather than a name. Send a brief message after a meeting where someone made a good point: "Really liked your idea about [specific thing]." Use Slack or Teams for one casual, non-work-related interaction per week. Share something about your weekend, react to someone else's post in the social channel, or just ask how someone's doing.
For hybrid teams, use your in-office days strategically. Those are the days to have lunch with colleagues, schedule face-to-face conversations, and build the in-person rapport that's harder to create through screens. The relationships you build during your two or three office days carry over to the remote days in a way that purely digital interactions struggle to replicate.
What to do (and what to skip)
Join a cross-functional group, committee, or interest channel. These put you in contact with people outside your immediate team and create organic reasons to interact. Internal book clubs, DEI committees, mentorship programs, volunteer organizing, and Slack channels for parents, runners, or hobby enthusiasts all serve as low-pressure networking within your organization.
Offer help without being asked. When you notice a colleague struggling with something you know well, a brief "Hey, I've dealt with this before. Want me to walk you through it?" creates goodwill that's disproportionate to the effort involved.
Acknowledge people. Birthdays, work anniversaries, project completions, and promotions are all opportunities to say something genuine. It doesn't need to be elaborate. "Congrats on the promotion. Well deserved" in a Slack message takes five seconds and strengthens the relationship.
What to skip: forced team-building exercises that nobody enjoys. Mandatory "fun" activities that eat into personal time. After-work drinks that consistently exclude parents with pickup schedules. If these are the only relationship-building options your company offers, find your own alternatives. The best workplace relationships happen in the margins of work, not at organized events.
The line between friendly and friends
You don't need to be best friends with your coworkers. You need to be genuinely friendly. The distinction matters. Best friends share personal struggles, vent about management, and expect emotional support. Friendly colleagues support each other professionally, enjoy working together, and maintain enough distance that the relationship doesn't become complicated when one person gets promoted over the other.
Some coworker relationships will naturally deepen into friendships. Let that happen organically rather than forcing it. The professional benefits of workplace relationships don't require intimacy. They require consistency, mutual respect, and genuine interest in each other's success.
One thing this week
Send one message to a coworker you don't normally interact with. Something that isn't work-related and isn't complicated. "Hey, saw you mentioned [hobby/interest]. I've been meaning to try that. Any recommendations?" It's small. It's human. And it's the kind of interaction that, repeated over months, builds the workplace relationships that quietly shape your career.