Do your friends at work make work a less stressful experience for you?

Great thing about reading other blogs is that I find articles I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. A favorite blogger of mine, Kerri Morrone, at Six Until Me (click on this link) mentioned this article by Tara Parker Pope at the New York Times Blog, The Value of a friend in the next cubicle.

The point being that research shows that people who have friends at work experience less stress. DUH!

Stop for a minute and ask yourself: does having chronic illness make it harder to relate to others? Or for others to relate to you?

I know it often does for me. Last week I had just a bad virus (no major ms flare or anything!) with a really bad sinus headache (oh, I empathize with all those migraine folks). Of course, my feet got really numb as they always do (MS neuropathy) when I have a virus.

On a conference call with a colleague, I felt that I wasn’t reacting with much energy to our discussion so I mentioned how I felt. When she responded by saying that I seemed “off”, I thought : “Yikes – It’s showing?”

How do we connect when we feel crappy? That is a challenge, no? ESPECIALLY at work where people want you to be upbeat and positive. But, oh boy, we need these friends — just because they keep us upbeat and positive!

What are you doing to make those relationships at work – work better for you — even when you’re body isn’t working!

Rosalind