Want To Be Happy At Work? Find A Friend.

If you're unmotivated at work, it may not be the mid-career blues. Polling data says you just may need a friend.

In "Vital Friends: The People You Can't Afford to Live Without," Tom Rath uses Gallup research to establish the connection between friends and happiness. The money finding: "the quality of the friendships in your life are the best predictors of daily happiness and life satisfaction and have profound implications for your physical health and longevity."

You may think that friends and work are separate aspects of your life, but Rath shows that you're better off mixing the two. Close friendships at work increase employee satisfaction almost 50%. People who have a "best friend" at work do even better -- they are "seven times more likely to be engaged in their work." People with three or more close friends at work were 46% more likely to be "extremely satisfied" with their work -- and 88% more likely to be satisfied with their whole life.

Gallup went so far as to ask whether people would rather have a 10% raise or a close friend at work. The winner? Friendship.

And if you're lucky enough (?) to be friends with your boss, the Gallup data says you should be twice as likely to be satisfied with your job.

Rath's findings extend to other key areas of life. He found that friendship accounts for 70% of marital satisfaction -- five times more than physical intimacy.

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Sources and resources:

USA Today review / feature on Vital Friends

The Independent (UK) summary

Publisher's press release

Website for the book. The book contains a secret code that lets you access a quiz with which you can assess your friends (!).

See the book at Amazon (US).