&gt; So you&#x27;re just going to ignore the fact that the article notes studies proving the opposite?<p>Like another commenter already mentioned, I wasn&#x27;t very convinced by this one study. I&#x27;m friendly and polite with my coworkers, and I take great care to understand what people on my team like and don&#x27;t like regarding the work they&#x27;re doing. I use this to make sure I can give people tasks I think they&#x27;d like best, and to offer to relieve their stress if they&#x27;re overburdened with something they don&#x27;t like.<p>I&#x27;m not their friend, but I care about their well-being and I believe it shows. I&#x27;m not convinced there would be productivity gains if I took the relationship further than that. I&#x27;d need more evidence.<p>&gt; Maybe your workplace shouldn&#x27;t be a soulless machine<p>It&#x27;s not soulless. Why attack what I like? I think my work is tons of fun on its own, and entirely &quot;soulful.&quot;<p>That&#x27;s like saying it&#x27;s &quot;soulless&quot; for me to run a marathon and not want to be distracted by running with friends who want to chat with me during the run. Running is fun in and of itself, and I&#x27;d rather not be distracted so I can get as much joy and fulfillment out of it as possible.