It's much easier to come into work every day when you like the people you work with. In fact, research has found that when employees have close friends at work, they are often more engaged and productive, and likely to stay with their company longer. And a new study published in Social Networks suggests that women often build stronger workplace friendships than men do, creating close-knit groups that play an important stabilizing role in organizations. The researchers used data from a US community development organization that places 18-to-24-year-olds in different jobs, most of which are in schools. One of the organization's main goals is for the workers to learn to work — and form friendships — with different groups of people. Across their first 10 months with the organization, around 140 participants answered four surveys about their workplace friendships. Fifty-five percent of the participants were women, while 45% were men. The surveys were spread evenly across the beginning, middle and end of the 10 months. The researchers found that men were more likely to form one-on-one friendships with other men — and these were more common when the friendship was seen as supporting personal or professional goals. Women, meanwhile, were more likely to prioritize friendship for its own sake. This resulted in stronger friendship groups, and more interconnected social networks within workplaces. The researchers said the friendship networks that women built were also found to contribute more to organizational stability. However, the different friendship patterns found in the study could also play a role in inequality and pay gaps between men and women. The researchers said that women's friendship networks, while offering a positive contribution to the workplace, may offer fewer opportunities to help their careers when compared with the more strategic relationships men are likely to develop.