????你是否工作太忙，甚至連在同事的辦公室門口稍作停留，閑聊幾句或相約共赴午餐的時間都沒有？或者你認為工作就是工作，一切公事公辦？如果你這么想，就得要小心了：不在工作中努力結交朋友、培養友誼，或許就等于自毀前程。

????近期的一項研究發現，積極建立辦公室友誼、工作任勞任怨并經常組織辦公室活動的人們在接下來兩年中獲得升職的可能性要高出40%。“你在工作中付出多少，直接影響到你在工作中得到多少，”《幸福優勢：推動事業成功的七大積極心理學原則》（The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work）的作者肖恩?阿克稱。

????阿克在研究中根據人們為同事提供的此類社會支持的多少，將所有人平均分成4組。最上面的25%是利他主義者，提供的此類社會支持最多，最下面的25%提供的最少。利他主義者自述工作滿意度顯著較高，工作的投入感比最下面的25%高出了10倍。

????因此，不僅這些人緣好的人自身能受益，公司同樣也會受益。“幸福感是現代經濟社會中最大的競爭優勢，”阿克表示。“如果能在工作中找到創造幸福感的方法，生產率會提高31%，銷售額提高37%，人們也會認為你更有魅力，你的創意能力會提升3倍。”

????為增加社會支持，路易斯安那州一家大型醫療保健提供商Ochsner Health System與阿克合作實施了“10/5英尺”法。Ochsner在給1.1萬名員工講授了互相提供支持的重要性后，要求員工們在醫院里每次與他人相距不到十英尺時須進行眼神接觸并微笑，距離拉近到5英尺時互致問候。

????自那以來，Ochsner獲得病人推薦的概率提高了5%，病人就診量增加。病人總體滿意度顯著提升。阿克說：“我們只需要稍微做出一些調整，就能輕松改變人們的交往模式。”

????社會支持還能改善個人健康。社會支持度高的人們往往會長壽，就像定期鍛煉的人一樣，而社會支持度低帶來的傷害不亞于高血壓。阿克表示，2007年對1,648名哈佛學生的研究發現，社會支持是高壓力期幸福度的最佳指征，關聯度達到了0.71，高于吸煙和癌癥0.37的關聯度。

????這項對于社會支持效應的調查是積極心理行動的一部分，它“強調個人有能力改變自身幸福度以及其他相關的正面人生結果”。參與阿克一項研究的人們被要求每天通過一些做法，建立積極心理，比如給認識的某個人寫一條積極的留言，或者寫下三件過去三周內感恩的事情。個人的人生滿意度——普遍認為這一指標能準確預測工作場所的生產率和幸福度——平均得分從培訓前的22.96（滿分35）提升到了4個月后的27.23。

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????Are you too busy to stop by your colleague's office to chat or go to lunch? Or are you someone who keeps work relationships strictly business? Be warned: If you're not reaching out to make and nurture friendships at work, you're probably hurting your career.

????Recent research finds that people who initiate office friendships, pick up slack for their co-workers, and organize workplace social activities are 40% more likely to get a promotion in the subsequent two years. "How much you give at work directly affects how much you get at work," says Shawn Achor, author of The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work.

????In his research, Achor divides individuals into quartiles based on how much they provide this kind of social support to colleagues. Work altruists, the top 25%, give the most, while work isolators, the bottom 25%, provide the least. Work altruists report significantly higher job satisfaction and feel 10 times more engaged by work than people in the lowest quartile.

????So not only do these uber-connectors benefit from their behavior, the employer gains as well. "Happiness is the greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy," Achor says. "If you can find a way of creating happiness at work, you're 31% more productive, your sales are 37% higher, people perceive you as being more charismatic and you're three times more creative."

????To increase social support, Ochsner Health System, a large Louisiana health care provider that Achor works with, implemented an approach called the "10/5 Way." After educating 11,000 employees about the importance of offering support to each other, Ochsner asked employees to make eye contact and smile whenever they walk within 10 feet of another person in the hospital. If they pass within 5 feet, they say hello.

????Since then, Ochsner has seen a 5% increase in patients' likelihood to recommend the organization, greater unique patient visits, and a significant improvement in overall patient satisfaction. "We can change the social script very easily by making some small adjustments," Achor says.

????Social support also improves the health of individuals. People who receive high levels of social support are as likely to live longer as those who exercise regularly, and low social support does as much damage as high blood pressure. A 2007 study of 1,648 Harvard students found that social support was the best predictor of happiness in periods of high stress, with a correlation of .71, according to Achor. That's a stronger tie than the link between smoking and cancer, which is .37.

????Researchers investigating the effects of social support are part of the larger positive psychology movement, which stresses the ability of individuals to change their own level of happiness -- and related positive life outcomes. Participants in one of Achor's studies were asked to take daily steps to build positivity, such as writing a positive message to someone in their social network or writing down three things they were grateful for over the course of three weeks. Individuals' mean score on the life satisfaction scale -- a metric widely accepted to accurately predict productivity and happiness at work -- moved from 22.96 before the training (on a 35-point scale) to 27.23 four months later.