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A recent study of workers indicated that getting along with their colleagues was the most important factor for being happy at work. Having a great working relationship with one's colleagues matters for both our health and workplace satisfaction. Given how much time a working person spends with colleagues and the importance of our happiness and well-being, I was curious about the concept of a colleague.
Before my retirement, I got many emails that started with "Dear Colleague" from interoffice, professional organizations, and societies to which I belonged. We simply refer to each other as a "colleague." A dictionary definition of a colleague is a person with whom one works within a profession or business. Is a colleague the same as a coworker or a friend? What about workmate? Associate?
If we understand colleague broadly as those who are employed by the same company or institution, the president of a university would be a colleague with a lab technician in the biology department. Conversely, if we understood it narrowly as a relation between people who work on the same project and know each other well, then the connotation is different. I worked with a person on a university-wide committee, and we regularly consulted with each other, and I respected the person's expertise. Therefore, I call that person my colleague, in fact, my esteemed colleague. I would not refer to that colleague as a friend or co-worker.
When I worked in the Information Technology industry, the word colleague was seldom mentioned. Instead, we used, "staff member," "coworker" or "project member." It appears that the use of the word, colleague, has a different meaning depending on which industry or organization you work in. In the English language, there seem to be many words denoting work-related social relations: colleague, associate, peer, coworker, etc.
Social media platforms like LinkedIn frequently ask me to connect with others with whom I do not have any association. Some people with whom I have little common interest ask me to connect with them. Facebook's feature of either "accept" or "remove" friends they pushed to me can be increasingly demanding and therefore annoying. I don't have any interest in building a large friend group as some of my acquaintances have done. I am happy with the list of friends that I have now. For my personal preference, I like to evaluate carefully who will be my "friend."
What does it mean to have over 1,000 friends? The concept of colleague or friend must be qualified by my definition to be included in my circle, not by their demand. Why would anyone need a friend(s) anyway out of the random file of social media platforms worldwide? What happens when your "friend" becomes "a despicable friend" by gossiping about you behind your back? Do we cease to be a friend? If you do not agree with your colleague's opinion or dislike the person, what happens to the collegial relationship? Do we need to like a colleague to be a colleague; or are there other factors such as how well you know the person and what your professional expertise is to be considered as a colleague?
In summary, the concept of a colleague has a special dimension which is more than the concept of "coworker," "workmate" or "friend." That is, a colleague is a person who works in the same organization and with whom one is familiar, or a person who works in the same organization and works in the same field and a person whose knowledge and expertise I highly value. I would not call just anyone in my organization a colleague as I would not refer to anyone as my friend unless I am familiar with that person's background, knowledge and respectability. The word, colleague, has much more meaning than a single definition found in a dictionary for sure. Are you my colleague or my friend or both or neither? That is my decision alone.
Shin Freedman (shinfreed@gmail.com) is author of "A Doll for a Day: Growing Up in Post-War Korea."
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