📘 Part 3: Colleagues

This episode's vocabulary

To empathize (verb) - to be able to understand how someone else feels.

To collaborate (verb) - to work with someone else for a special purpose.

Attribute (noun) - a quality or characteristic that someone or something has.

Flexibility (noun) - the ability to change or be changed easily according to the situation.

Toxic (adj.) - very unpleasant or unacceptable.

Prophylactic (adj.) - preventing disease.

Likeable (adj.) - A likeable person is pleasant and easy to like.

Competent (adj.) - able to do something well.

Abrasive (adj.) - rude and unfriendly.

To be capable of something/doing something (phrase) - having the ability, power, or qualities to be able to do something.

To self-regulate (verb) - to control yourself.

To determine (verb) - to control or influence something directly, or to decide what will happen.

To underpin (verb) - to give support, strength, or a basic structure to something.

Conducive (adj.) - providing the right conditions for something good to happen or exist.

Anecdotal (adj.) - anecdotal information is not based on facts or careful study.

To draw in(to) (something) (idiom) - to attract someone or something.

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Questions and Answers

M: What do you think makes someone a good colleague?

R: Shared sense of purpose and vision in work terms. And in personal terms, having a good sense of humour and an ability to communicate and empathize well are useful. You have to be able to collaborate well, and these skills and attributes should allow that to happen.

M: What matters most about a colleague's personality?

R: I think that will depend on the business and situation, though being reasonably organized and helpful would be useful normally. Of course, there are different ways to be helpful. And in a company, you have to work together. So there's enough flexibility in there that it should always count for something.

M: Is having good colleagues, the most important thing about a job?

R: It's not the be-all and end-all. But it's definitely in my top five. If I didn't like the people I worked with, I would leave. And I think that's true for everyone. No one wants to work in a toxic environment that makes you feel terrible all the time and good colleagues are a great prophylactic against that.

M: Are good colleagues important at work?

R: Isn't this just the same as the last question? Regardless, yes, they are. I wouldn't be without mine. And I'm sure others would say the same, assuming they work with other people, which almost everyone does.

M: How can workers build good relationships with their colleagues?

R: That will depend entirely on the context, though a few common factors would be being likeable and competent. Nobody wants to work with someone who cannot do their job, nor do they want to work with people who are abrasive and rude. There are some exceptions to this, but you have to be one extreme or the other to get away with it. And I don't think most people are capable of that.

M: Does it matter if a child likes or doesn't like their classmates?

R: It shouldn't matter. But so often it does, since children are still learning how to work with others and self-regulate, which means they can't always cope with working with others in their group that they can't stand. That's important, since that can determine whether outcomes of a task or project will be successful or not.

M: How can teachers help their students get along?

R: Modeling appropriate behaviour helps. They need to show what successful working relationships look like as well as what underpins them. It also helps to have an environment that's conducive to it with lots of opportunities to work together.

M: In your country, do people often build close relationships with their colleagues?

R: I'm not sure how you would even begin to measure that, though, it certainly couldn't hurt to try and do that. The older generations seem to reference their relationships with their colleagues more, whereas young people do it less often. Though, it's all anecdotal evidence, really.

M: What people are popular at work?

R: Well, like I said before, competent and likeable people. You have to be able to do your job at least reasonably well. And you have to be able to work with others to get anywhere. If I had anything to add to that, I would say, attractive or funny people, since that tends to draw people in most social situations, not just work.

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