Tuesday, October 20, 2026

With Friends Like These

The importance of workplace connections: why the people you work with matter more than you think.

Guide Magazine

By Neil Houtman

How much time do you spend with coworkers?

Do you have a job where you interact with people constantly, or do you only see people in the lunchroom?

Do you work alone, or collaborate through screens?

Do the people you work with or around affect your opinions and behaviours?

Are you glad to see anyone in particular? Are there people you cringe to see?

We spend a lot of our lives with coworkers, and good ones are important.

The best work memories I have come from the hardest jobs—when our team stayed focused on the challenge and committed to a shared outcome.

But what happens when there is no real team—just strong personalities, conflicting perspectives, and decisions that create tension instead of alignment? Or you’re surrounded by peripheral players, like subcontractors who may be cutting corners, or salespeople who are expecting loyalty to higher prices and poor service in exchange for a free lunch?

I learned early on that some people resent others’ good fortune, and others will try to stretch a friendship or favour far beyond its value. I have seen all these things and learned a bad lesson early on: people are a bother. I learned to stay away from connecting with people in case they might, at some point in the distant future, stab me in the back, demand an unfair rate of return on a favour, or make my life difficult.

What I lost was a well-developed network. I focused too much on the saying, “With friends like these, who needs enemies,” and not enough on, “It isn’t what you know, it’s who you know.”

A well-developed network enables problem-solving, career advancement, and access to opportunities in any field. Knowing who can help get the job done, who is hiring, and where your experience can be best applied are all dividends of investing in a strong network.

Years ago, I began to see the problem in my thinking and started fixing it. I set boundaries on what behaviours I would accept, and the problematic people fell outside of them. I still work with them, but I don’t give in to the shenanigans.

I found coworkers who would work as a team and worked to develop strong relationships—both inside my company and with vendors, suppliers, and subtrades. It’s paid off. In one case, I had a sales representative from a rental company spend two hours searching his database for the exact lift to get into a demanding location. And when the only available lift was two hours away, he arranged for it to be brought to site. That’s a person I want and need in my network.

Through CLAC conferences, I’ve met people who helped me become a better steward. They’ve also helped me grow as a person, and while I’m still a work in progress, that growth allows me to be more helpful to others.

There will always be people who don’t respect boundaries, who feel affronted by anything that doesn’t benefit them, who take shortcuts, who look for ways to manipulate and take advantage of others. They are good to know as well, because their network is likely one to be avoided.

But having a strong, healthy network of work friends and contacts is so important. Making connections with coworkers, union representatives, stewards, and attending conventions, conferences, trade shows, and industry training events are all ways to build a network.

It takes time and effort, but it will enrich your life at work and your life outside of work. And who knows, it might even help you land a dream job in the future.

With Friends Like These

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