Where have all the work friends gone?
The pandemic has emptied downtown buildings, and along the way, done a number on office plants, gossip, and relationships, even with people you didnât know youâd miss.
By Beth Teitell Globe Staff,Updated February 23, 2021, 8:29 a.m.
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Studies show that people who have friends at work make more loyal and engaged employees.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
Work friends. Remember them? Those people you used to spend more time with than your . . . I can barely type the word . . . family?
Last week, an e-mail from a colleague stabbed me in the heart. âYouâre starting to feel like an old friend from a city I used to live in,â he wrote.
How do you go about finding a friend during a pandemic? By the hour Operating under lockdowns and ever-changing social restrictions, many are puzzled by how to handle what some have said is an epidemic with a pandemic
Author of the article: Helena Skrinjar, Special to National Post
Publishing date: Feb 11, 2021 • February 12, 2021 • 8 minute read • A 2018 report found that it takes more than 200 hours to make a close friend. Photo by NP photo illustration
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By Helena Skrinjar
Article content
By Helena Skrinjar
In early October, I was paid US$60 to be someone’s friend. Other than jokingly claiming my role in any friendship was priceless, I hadn’t ever thought about how much I was worth. But that day, I found myself in Manhattan’s popular Meatpacking District, outside a trendy hotel, meeting a perfect stranger named Kenneth, whom I met on the RentaFriend.com website.
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Try refreshing your browser. How do you go about finding a friend during a pandemic? By the hour Back to video
It was started in 2009 by entrepreneur Scott Rosenbaum after reading about Japan’s popular “Rent A Family” companies, agencies that rent out people to act as substitute family members.