They text you under the table during the meeting that won’t end. They hook all your paper clips together when you’re not looking and wrap your cubicle in plastic wrap. They talk reality TV around the water cooler, bring cupcakes for no reason and always have a good dad joke up their sleeve. They’re the coworkers that make the job not just survivable, but hilarious, connected and memorable.
Work is where we spend nearly half of our waking hours. It’s what our education and training were aimed at and for most of us. It is how we put food on the table for those that we love. That also means our jobs are part of who we see in the mirror and how we find our identity. When work is a miserable and lonely place, it’s hard for us to not become lonely and miserable people as well.
So with today’s post, we thank our lucky stars for the co-workers that are the class clowns, have become friends instead of just cubicle mates and might even have stepped up to care for us in ways even our families have not. We count ourselves lucky to have been in the same training class as them, to get stuck in the trade show booth with them or to work the late shift with them by our side.
Telling Our Coworkers About Their Indispensability
One of the great moments in life is when we’re told that the party is just not the same without us there. When we realize that we’re something more than tolerated by the people who matter to us. When we’re declared invaluable and indispensable, not because of what we do, but because of who we are.
Thanking your coworkers is about letting them know that the job wouldn’t be the same without them. It’s about sharing with them that one of the great bonuses of working at your company is the laughter they bring into your world and the adventures you share. It’s about telling them that they’re enjoyable in a way that no one else can replace.
Today, tomorrow or Monday when you walk back into the office, let them know. Tell them “you make work fun” or “I don’t think I’d survive this job without you.” Stick a note in their desk, send them an email or bring them a goodie from the snack machine. If you’re not great with words, then nominate them for employee of the month, have their back when no one else does or send them a pizza when they’re home with a sick kid.