There’s the family you chose and the family that chose you… in a sense. What I’m here to recognize most admirably are your work friends and your social friends and the wonderful difference. There is a great and vast difference between the way you and your work crew operate and the operations of yourself and your social circle. Outside of work you befriend people that have common interests, lifestyles and humor. At work, you befriend people mostly because the cube farm can’t operate without some level of camaraderie; I beg you to look deeper.

I see the work environment as animals that join forces in the wild. An office of worthy colleagues are like a pack of wild panthers that join together, not necessarily by choice, but to increase dominance and their chances of survival. In order for everyone to eat, you must work together. This is how I view an office’s take on business. You are there to dominate and survive, and the crew you do that with deserves all the props one panther can give. However, I have come to realize that you must bridge the gap between the panthers and the person inside.

At work, I am Joe… but at play, I am Joey. I have tried not to mix the two. Yet, the other day on a lunch break, five of my work crew members (panthers) packed Todd from HR’s Kia and made route to Panera. It was when Todd played the all-too-tasty jam, ‘Pimp Juice’ that I found a new level of relations with people around me. Karen the single mother of one child knew every word, shockingly. I felt a synergy of the Joey and the Joe. There are many opportunities for each side of you to find the blend. There’s a reason why you feel empowered and not embarrassed in these ‘Pimp Juice Situations’, because you have accepted that these are your people, your work crew, your panthers. You share goals, you share successes and failures and at the end of the day you want what they want and likewise.

I urge everyone to find their ‘Pimp Juice Connection’ with colleagues because it honestly makes your time in the office much more personable and enjoyable. We know why we have our social friends, those connections are very blatant and obvious, but I challenge you to find something that compares to singing Hustlin’ by Rick Ross with your boss. Props to the people in your life that are put around you by coincidence and to the people that make the best of it.