(Accountemps, a Robert Half Int'l company, is a temp firm specializing in finance/bookkeeping/accounting needs. You may know the company from its extremely annoying radio spots where the boss always pines for "Bob from Accountemps," to Fernwell, his lickspittle. Yes, we listen to far too much news radio.)

The survey, administered by by an independent research firm, included responses from 150 senior executives across many departments and 519 full- or part-time front-line office workers.

The survey indicated that 57% of executives polled believe office productivity improves when coworkers are friends outside of the office; about 63% of the employees themselves agreed. Further, 22% of the employees called the impact "very positive", while only 2% of managers felt that way.

Isn't this kind of a no-brainer? Workplace friendships, especially when crossing lines of reporting/management, certainly complicate things a bit at times. Even so, nothing in the past has made us dread work as the prospect of walking into an office filled with troglodytes. And nothing's been as much of a motivator (aside from cash, we suppose) to come in and do a good job more than coworkers we admire, get along with, and who are giving a similar effort.