Yes, it's possible: tips to keep the peace at work

You can pick your friends, but you can't pick your co-workers. Yet you need them in more ways than one. Here's how to keep the peace with them.

First, you need their goodwill and cooperation in order to perform your own job well. Second, studies find that disagreements with co-workers and bad working relationships deflate morale and impair performance even more than rumours of layoffs. Your attitude will go a long way in making your workplace a happier place.

• Do you plod into the office, eyes down, shoulders slumped, and immediately start work?
• If so, you're likely to find that co-workers ignore you (at best) or avoid you (at worst).
• Get into the habit of smiling and greeting everyone as you arrive in the morning or begin your shift.
• It's amazing how fast this little courtesy can thaw chilly workplace relations.

• Other workers sometimes play jokes and tease to test what kind of person you are.
• So if they poke fun at your new shoes or mischievously put a funny screensaver on your computer, don't get angry.
• Let them know that you enjoy a good joke – even if it's sometimes on you.
• Of course, if the teasing is personal (about your weight or ethnicity, for example), and makes it difficult for you to do your job or makes you feel uncomfortable because of its sexual implications, you may need to take up the matter with your supervisor.

• You don't have to be a Pollyanna, but try to perform one kindly act a week, choosing a different co-worker each time.
• For example, one week you might bring in muffins for no reason.
• Another week, it might be a card for a co-worker – maybe a thank-you note for helping you out the week before, or a light, humorous card for a co-worker who seems to be a bit down.

• To win friends at work, a good place to start is good office etiquette.
• There's nothing more frustrating to busy people than to have their e-mails and phone messages ignored.
• Your silence doesn't just make their job harder to do; it also conveys an unpleasant message to them: you're unimportant to me.

• Don't withhold credit from deserving co-workers.
• You'll alienate them, and they won't be there for you when you need them (or when they all go out for lunch).
• Embrace the attitude that we all win together, and let others know when someone has done something above and beyond the call of duty on a project.
• Also, if someone incorrectly gives you credit and praise, acknowledge your co-worker who does deserve the accolades. It will be remembered.

• Isn't it funny how a team of workers often think they're working harder than another team elsewhere in the building?
• Or that the bosses are clueless? Don't subscribe to that kind of toxic thinking, even if it's rampant. It's a negative attitude that makes work become miserable.
• Instead, assume that everyone else is working hard and doing their best, even if you don't know what their work is.
• You should believe both in the work you're doing and the organization you're doing it for. If you can't, perhaps it's time to move on.