Which type of relationship can provide advancement opportunities and workplace satisfaction?

Now that we’ve covered the importance of relationships at work, let’s talk about the types of work relationships. Understanding the different types of work relationships can help you determine the role your existing relationships play, and which ones you may be lacking.

First and foremost, not all work relationships are created equal – some will help propel your careers, others will help keep you sane, and a few can even be detrimental. The more you can build strong, meaningful relationships, the more likely you are to not only succeed, but be more satisfied with your career.

Second, there are two types of work relationships: professional and personal. Professional relationships are solely for the purpose of getting your work done. They help you advance your career and would not exist if not for your job. Personal relationships at work are those you have in the workplace for social reasons. They don’t impact your job other than they improve workplace satisfaction (by up to 96 percent!) and keep you sane.

These different types of work relationships are not mutually exclusive – some people will fall into both the professional and personal categories. These are the truly important relationships that make work fun and productive.

With that understanding, let’s learn about the 7 Types of Work Relationships (in order of intimacy, from lowest to highest):

1) Coworkers

Type: N/A
Description: Co-worker relationships are neither professional nor personal, but merely circumstantial. They are acquaintances through your company, but beyond working for the same organization, you have very little interaction with them.
Role: Co-workers serve little role professionally or personally, but serve a valuable role in that they are often the pool of people from which other, more meaningful relationships will be established.

2) Team Members

Type: Professional
Description: Team-members are fellow employees who work on the same team as you. This could be the team you work with on a daily basis, a committee you’ve joined or a group working together for a single activity.
Role: Team-members are important because they are the people you actually accomplish work with. Together, you plan, design, develop, execute and track work related to your role. The better your relationship with your team, the easier it is to get this work completed.

3) Work Friends

Type: Personal
Description: Work Friends are people who you interact with socially at work–you sit by them in meetings, go to lunch together, talk to them at work events and happy hours, and possibly even see them outside of work every now and then.
Role: Work Friends fill our social need and keep us sane from the daily grind. You likely wouldn’t be friends with them if not for your mutual employment of each other at the same company, but they serve as our support system during the corporate hours.

4) Manager/Direct Report

Type: Professional
Description: Your Manager is the one assigning you the work, helping you succeed and ultimately impacting the work you do (and don’t do). Your Direct Reports are the ones who report to you (you are their manager). They also determine whether or not you succeed.
Role: The relationship between you and your manager is vital because they often play an important role in determining your rating, salary and workplan. They are also a large factor in your workplace satisfaction (as they say, you don’t leave a company, you leave your manager). For your Direct Reports, you serve these functions, while they serve as a way to accomplish more with your organization without you doing all of the work.

5) Office Spouse

Type: Personal
Description: Your Office Spouse is that person you spend a significant amount of time with; they are your go-to for venting and advice, and there have probably been rumors about the two of you at one time or another (even though it is platonic).
Role: The role of the Office Spouse is to serve as your “workplace bestie” or go-to friend when you have a work predicament. They keep you from jumping off the ledge, are the person you trust with sharing your emotions and frustrations, and know you the best out of any of your workplace relationships.

6) Mentor/Mentee

Type: Professional
Description: Mentor/Mentee is the highest professional relationship you can have. It’s similar in intimacy to that of an Office Spouse, but it serves you professionally. Your mentor is that person you go to for career guidance and help on the toughest-of-the-tough problems. Your mentee is the one coming to you for that advice.
Role: Your Mentor helps you traverse the landscape at your job. They help you think through the most challenging problems, give you perspective on how to handle your most challenging relationships, and generally guide you to success. You serve the same purpose for your Mentee, while they keep you grounded and connected to the pulse of the organization.

7) Life Friends

Type: Personal
Description: The most intimate work relationship you can have is one that you don’t even consider specific to work–that of a friend IRL (in real life). They would be your friends even if you no longer worked at the company.
Role: These are friends who fill the same role as your normal social friends, because that’s what they are. You have fun together, laugh together, cry together, and possibly become romantically involved together. They aren’t friends you know at work, they are friends you happen to work with.

Obviously the real-world isn’t as structured as what is depicted with these differentiations in relationships. Some people fall into multiple categories (a manager and a mentor) and some blur the lines between two or three of them. However, having an understanding of the basic types of work relationships can help you determine the purpose of the relationship and how to best leverage it for helping you succeed, not just at work, but in life.

1. Career development
2. Professional Relationships: Types and Tips

By Indeed Editorial Team

Published May 17, 2021

The Indeed Editorial Team comprises a diverse and talented team of writers, researchers and subject matter experts equipped with Indeed's data and insights to deliver useful tips to help guide your career journey.

Related: Relationships at Work: Guide To Networking, Communication & More

In this video, we’ll teach you the 5 steps to build solid relationships with your coworkers and provide guidance on what to avoid.

Professional relationships involve people working together to achieve a common goal for the benefit of their company or organization. These relationships can vary greatly depending on the personality traits and intentions of the individuals involved. Learning about professional relationships can help prepare you to form your own workplace connections. In this article, we discuss what a professional relationship is, review different types of professional relationships and present five tips to help you build effective professional relationships.

What is a professional relationship?

A professional relationship is an interpersonal connection between two or more people in a place of business. Professional relationships are usually more formal than relationships that exist outside of work. This is because work culture and professional expectations often dictate how people should behave towards one another. These expectations help keep personal issues and situations from interfering with business operations.

Here are a few common professional relationships:

Direct report or manager relationships

This professional relationship describes the interpersonal connection between an employee and their manager. The manager is the one who assigns the work, monitors its progress and expects regular updates from the employee. The manager often helps determine ways in which the employee can grow or take on more responsibility. This relationship is vital to workplace satisfaction because managers create a positive work environment and set the standard for how others should conduct themselves.

Coworker relationships

Coworker relationships are professional relationships between individuals who work at the same company. This is the most common type of professional relationship, but it may take on unique aspects or characteristics depending on the circumstance. For example, if a person from another department transfers to your team, then that coworker relationship has become a team member relationship, which is slightly more personal.

Similarly, if you refer a close friend to your company for an open position, your coworker relationship may be more unique because you already have a relationship outside of work. These factors can affect how coworker relationships develop.

Read more: 8 Ways To Build Workplace Relationships

Client relationships

Client relationships describe a relationship between a provider of a product or service and the client. These professional relationships are generally more formal because businesses often show their clients additional care in order to retain them as a customer.

Mentor and mentee relationships

The mentor and mentee professional relationship describes the connection between someone experienced and someone who is in the early learning stage of their career. The mentor often provides the mentee with wisdom, guidance and expertise. This type of interpersonal relationship may become more personal as the mentor and mentee form a closer bond, demonstrating greater trust and ease in communication.

Read more: How To Make the Most Of Your Mentor Relationship

Team member relationships

The team member relationship is another common professional relationship. This differs from the coworker relationship because coworkers are not always team members. For example, if you work for a large corporation with hundreds of employees, you may only have a small team of 10 or 20 people with whom you work directly. These are your team members. While team members are also coworkers, everyone else in the company who you do not closely or directly work with falls only into the coworker category.

Team member relationships are characterized by close interpersonal work toward the same goal or purpose. Because team members often spend much of the workday together, these relationships may take on some characteristics similar to friendships.

Targeted relationships

A targeted relationship is a professional relationship where one person seeks or targets another individual in order to form a beneficial connection with them. This targeted person often is very knowledgeable or has something from which the other person can benefit. For example, you might establish a targeted relationship because you believe the other individual might be able to help you get a promotion or a secure new job through their connections.

Tentative relationships

The tentative relationship refers to a brief interaction or encounter between two or more individuals in a work-related environment. A momentary greeting at a company-sponsored event is a tentative relationship, for example, because no further connection has yet formed between the individual parties involved. However, one or both individuals may seek to develop this relationship further if they believe they may gain some value from forming a deeper professional relationship.

Trusted relationships

A trusted relationship is an interpersonal relationship that holds the most value. These relationships are personal and highly dependable. They are special because they can last for long periods of time, even after one or both individuals have left the place where they originally worked together. Any type of professional relationship can become a trusted relationship.

Read more: Complete Guide To Building Relationships at Work

Business relationships

Business relationships focus primarily on the work-related aspects of a relationship. They serve to accomplish the objectives of a business operation or describe what one party can do for the other. These transaction-based relationships are useful when you want to establish an important business collaboration that requires dedicated time and efforts. In this type of relationship, the priority is to stay focused on your tasks and complete the work in a timely manner.

Why is it important to maintain professional relationships?

Professional relationships are important because they encourage a healthier and safer work environment where everyone can work together with minimal conflict. Professional relationships also help to maintain boundaries. Managing your boundaries and keeping a relationship professional can help to keep everyone focused on their projects and responsibilities.

5 tips to build professional relationships

Here are five tips to help you build healthy professional relationships:

Introduce yourself

The first thing to do if you want to build a professional relationship is introduce yourself to your colleagues. These can be simple greetings or making small talk. You can try to start off an introduction by trying to find a common connection between yourself and the other person, like asking about which department they work in or if they know a specific coworker. Try to speak in a friendly tone and smile, as this can sometimes help an introduction feel more natural.

Build trust

Building trust helps create valuable relationships that are established on a mutual confidence in the words, actions, and skills of the other person. Building trust can help a professional relationship develop into something more substantive and authentic. You can build trust by showing that you are a reliable colleague and someone that others can depend on to complete their work on time and with attention to detail.

Read more: 14 Ways To Build Trust in the Workplace

Show respect

When you show respect to another person, they are likely to show you respect as well, meaning you both treat each other with integrity and kindness. Relationships built on respect can sometimes develop into closer work bonds and present greater opportunities. This is because people are more inclined to collaborate with someone who they believe has a deep respect for the work and for other people. Being considerate of other people's time and feelings while showing a desire to listen to their opinions can help to build mutual respect.

Be inclusive

Inclusivity means including people that are sometimes excluded or marginalized because they are different. This is a healthy practice for building professional relationships because it can encourage others and make them feel valued and appreciated. Simple acts like inviting someone out to a team lunch or showing an interest in something that's important to them can help them feel welcomed.

Read more: How To Practice Inclusiveness in the Workplace

Return kind gestures

Returning a kind gesture simply means that if someone does something nice for you, then it could help your professional relationship if you perform a kind gesture in return. Helping a colleague complete their project before a deadline may be enough to encourage them to help you with your own project. This exchange of courtesy and generosity helps both parties develop a stronger professional relationship that shows a willingness to support each other when in need.