I haven’t worked in this industry very long and I’ve only been a few places along my way. During this short period though I have made some pretty awesome friends. For those that don’t know yet you work A LOT with the people around you and when you work a lot you may get irritated with them. Who am I kidding – you will definitely be irritated with someone at some point. It’s okay to be irritated! But you know what makes it better in the end? The fact that you all care for one another. That in the end you’re working toward the same goal. So after you get in that fight about where tables go know that you’ll come back together and put on a great gameday. Then three years later you’ll text each other and laugh about the fight.
See, in this business it’s not about securing the best halftime act or working harder than everyone to create the strong relationship – it’s about how you showed up for that coworker that needed a hand. It’s about how you treat them on a personal level, how you care for one another. My advice for creating strong relationships? Go to lunch/coffee/fro-yo together and talk about anything but work. Cultivate the friendship and your work relationship will follow. I am so grateful and lucky to have the coworkers that I do now and those that I have had in the past. I choose to hang out with them outside of work and continue to see those that I have worked with before Illinois.
Your coworkers are your family – for better or for worse.