Every relationship requires certain types of behavior if the relationship is to survive over time. We all have relationships with a variety of people during the course of the day, and each relationship places different burdens on both parties involved. Each relationship also involves a level of intimacy, a degree of freedom, and certain constraints. Each of these opportunities and limitations is expressed in the behaviors which help identify and maintain the relationship. Three such relationships are work relationships with a co-worker, romantic relationships, and family relationships.
Work relationships center on work, of course, and our personal work behaviors are vitally important in how we maintain relationship with co-workers. Each of us has our area of responsibility in the work situation, and fulfilling that responsibility is the first important behavior. In other words, we have to do our particular job so that our co-workers do not have to take up any slack left if we did not.
Punctuality is a related behavior which assures that we will fulfill our responsibilities so that someone else does not have to do it for us. It might not seem that punctuality is related directly to maintaining a relationship with a co-worker, but it is.
A willingness to help is an important behavior. We have to be willing to share our knowledge of the job and to assist our co-worker in completing his or her job just as we would want others to help us.
Every co-worker should be treated with respect at all times, which means that we acknowledge their contribution to the workplace and honor them as human beings.
We have to be willing to take up the slack for a co-worker when it is necessary to do so, though it puts a strain on workplace relations if it becomes necessary to do so too often. For the same reason, we must try not to ask the same of others any more than necessary, though it is certain to occur from time to time.
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