From Memes to Pub Trips: How Different Generations Bond with their Work Friends
From Gen Z swapping memes to Baby Boomers heading to the pub, new research reveals the surprisingly different ways workers are turning colleagues into close friends.
Among younger workers, digital bonding plays a key role, with 27 per cent of Gen Z sending memes or funny messages during the day. Baby Boomers, however, tend to favour in-person connection. They’re the most likely generation to meet their work best friend socially outside of work, go to the pub with them and have lunch together.
Luxury chocolatiers Lily O’Brien’s have polled 1,500 UK adults currently in employment to uncover the role workplace friendships play in our lives. Gen X were the most supportive to their work best friends, with a third giving each other advice about work problems.
Both Millennials and Gen Z were the most likely to enjoy a gym session with their work best friend compared to just 2 per cent of Baby Boomers.
The data also revealed the exact moments workers view someone as a friend and not a colleague – and meeting up outside of work tops the list followed by messaging outside of work hours, chatting about non-work topics and having lunch together.
Nights out and heading to the pub together solidified the friendship for 27 per cent of British employees, while going for a coffee/matcha together confirmed work bestie status for 25 per cent.
Sending memes was a key bonding moment for a fifth, while sharing chocolates together helped 14 per cent know that the friendship was real.
Workers also admitted that work best friends often become confidants, with many sharing personal problems, job frustrations, and office gossip with their work bestie that they wouldn’t tell other colleagues.
Karen Crawford, Marketing Director for Lily O’Brien’s, which commissioned the study, said: “It’s wonderful to see that workplace friendships play such an important role in people’s lives, and we’re delighted to celebrate the teams who bring that sense of warmth and camaraderie into their working day.”
The Top 10 Signs Someone Has Become a Work Friend
- When we meet up outside work – 49%
- When we message outside work hours – 42%
- When we start chatting about non-work topics – 38%
- When we have lunch together regularly – 29%
- When we have a night out together – 27%
- When we go to the pub together – 27%
- When we go for a coffee/matcha outside of work – 25%
- When we discuss our dating/love life together – 23%
- When we get invited to their birthday celebrations – 23%
- When we follow each other on social media – 21%