I think most of us would agree that we want good co-workers over bad ones. I am not just speaking about people who do good work, but people who are enjoyable to work with as well. There are unfortunately a lot of people who do good or even excellent work, but are terrible to work with.

If you think about it, you probably spend more awake time with your co-workers then your own family. I have found that when you have good people to work with, it can make the actual work you are doing more bearable or even enjoyable. Let's be honest, who truly loves all the stuff they have to do at work each day. There are usually some annoying things you are responsible for as well as (hopefully) more fun projects. You might have an old server or old version of SQL Server to maintain, or a legacy system you still have to support. I have found, when I have good co-workers some of the aspects of my job that I don't enjoy very much, just doesn't bother me as much because I enjoy my co-workers.

Clearly, if you currently don't have good co-workers there isn't a lot you can do about it. I suppose if you get to interview new candidates you can try to gage if they are someone who does good work and someone who you would enjoy working with. If you are the one seeking a new position, co-workers are something you should keep in mind. Hopefully, you get to meet some people during the interview, that will become your new co-workers. Perhaps even a few of them will be the ones interviewing you. Once you know you are interested in the position and they are interested in you, it is a good idea to try and discover who you will be working with. Make sure you remember that as much as you might like a position (work you will be doing) if you don't like the people you will be working with, it may end up being a miserable situation.

Recently two of my co-workers that I work with regularly were gone for two weeks. They were travelling to different remote sites. I realized I missed talking with them and bouncing ideas off them. I find that I enjoy my work a lot more when these co-workers are around to work with.

My previous job was a very small shop. I only had a few co-workers and none of them did the same work I did. There was no one to bounce ideas off or to collaborate with. Towards the end of my time at that position I was really quite miserable and part of the reason for that was the lack of good co-workers.

I hope you have some good people to work with at your job. If you do, perhaps you should take them out to lunch. If you don't, maybe it is time to move on to a new position with hopefully better people to work with. Share a story of a good, or terrible co-worker that you have experienced.