Most friends ‘are made in workplace’

Longer hours and office team-building exercises have led to people making most of their friends at work, according to new research.

A survey of more than 2,000 adults, by mobile phone giant O2, showed the office had taken over from school, university and family as the most likely place to make friendships.

Almost a third of those polled said they have made most of their friends through the workplace, one in four were from school (23 per cent), and one in ten through university or another form of higher education.

David Johnson, of O2, said: “The workplace is where we spend a lot of our time, so it’s bound to be the place that large numbers of friendships are made. But we know our colleagues as well as, and in some cases better than, friends made in other parts of our lives.”