Let’s hear it for our coworkers! Sure, we don’t like all of them (just because you can’t prove Joanne stole your yogurt doesn’t mean you don’t know in your heart that she did), but some of them have become quite dear to us, personally and professionally.
After all, we see these people all the time.
Even our virtual colleagues are a steady presence in our lives — in meetings, over email, and on chat apps like Slack. And it seems women are more likely to seek out and value those relationships than men, at least according to LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Confidence survey.
The survey was conducted by LinkedIn market researchers, who asked members on the site about their confidence to get/hold a job, improve their financial situation, and progress in their career, among other topics, including work friends and mentors.
Among U.S. workers, it seems, that women are not only more likely to report having close friends and mentors at work but also feel they need them. It should be noted that the difference here isn’t massive, but it is significant. All told, 56% of women versus 50% of men report having a work friend while 42% of women say they “need” a work friend compared to just 34% of men.
When it comes to mentors, women also appear to place more focus on finding and growing mentorship opportunities: 36% of women and 29% of men report having a work mentor. Even more, however, 46% of women and 36% of men “need” one.
Considering the survey also noted that women are slightly more likely than men to report feeling “burnt out” and “stuck” at their jobs, it’s understandable that they might be seeking others to help them not just sustain but enhance their careers.
And they’re onto something: according to reporting from Forbes, 25% of employees in a mentorship program had a salary-grade change compared to just 5% of those who weren’t being mentored. The same report found that mentorship programs not only benefit mentees but also their mentors, and promote employee retention, diversity, and a company’s bottom line.
And, of course, there’s the issue of Ye Olde Glass Ceiling. (You didn’t think we were going to share news about women in the workplace without giving that a mention did you?) According to 2023 data from LinkedIn, only about a third of leadership positions are held by women internationally. America is only slightly better than the global average with about 37%, despite women being 47% of the workforce.
In short, there’s work to do, and maybe women can get it done with a little help from their work friends.
