We spend a significant amount of time in the office, meaning we’re spending a significant amount of time with the same people on a daily basis. When we look back at good and bad jobs, it often boils down to the people we worked with either making even the worst jobs manageable and the bad jobs nightmares that live with us for the rest of our lives.

In fact, people spend a third of their lives in the office. Who wants to spend all that time either sitting around silently waiting for five o’clock or arguing and bringing all that stress home? It’s much easier mentally to be friendly with the people you’ll have to see again and again. We feel as if we’re truly part of a team out to make a difference when we’re all looking at work from a positive point-of-view.

Businesses rely on employees being friendly with each other as well. Functional teams who know how to work together get more done throughout the day and work more efficiently than teams who are unable to work together, stay organized, and focus more on avoiding one another or arguing, which takes away from the more important tasks that keep a business running.

The health benefits from being friendly with the people you work with are also extremely important to consider. Stress levels are lower, which helps keep blood pressure low and the risk of heart attacks low. When people come home from work stressed, it takes a toll on one’s health and also has an effect on the people around them.

Here, we’re going to break down GetVoIP’s 12 science-backed benefits from making friends at work that will hopefully motivate you and everyone you work with to be better people in general.

People who are friendly with each other tend to have less anxiety, lower blood pressure, fewer headaches and are less likely to be depressed. These all play a significant role in our work lives, even though they aren’t always the most obvious symptoms of a poor work environment. Many people believe that tension at work is commonplace, and in some cases it is; however, if you’re coming home every single day stressed and tired and living for the weekend, it’s probably time to consider working elsewhere if all hope seems lost.

However, if there is a chance of solving stressful issues at work, there’s little reason not to try. Friends pick you up when you’re down; friends help ensure the team stays productive as possible. When productivity is high and the work is running smoothly, there’s very little reason to complain. If all it takes to be more productive is to be friendly with one another, and your business or employees aren’t making the effort, or feel as if the environment they work in doesn’t call for friendly relationships with one another, it’s time to change that mindset.

There is a direct correlation between employee experience and customer experience. If employees are coming into work happy, they’re going to interact with customers in a more positive way. If customers are working with happy employees, they pick up on that and they’re more likely to do business with you. Happiness is contagious, and it’s time to start taking advantage.