10 questions for starting small talk with colleagues

Workplace small talk

You can ask this on a Friday to find out what the other person plans to do during the coming weekend. You can then ask follow-up questions or share your own plans.

Ask this on a Monday to find out what the other person did during the weekend. You can then ask follow-up questions or share what you did.

Did you get up to anything at the weekend?

Ask this during the day to start a casual conversation.

Use this question to find out how busy the other person is or what they have been working on.

You can say this with a smile and eye contact when passing someone in the workplace. They will usually reply with the same.

You can ask this if you haven't seen someone for a few days to find out what they have been doing recently.

You can ask about something the other person has mentioned before, for example "how's the running going?", "how's the house renovation going?".

You can ask about the progress of something they are working on, for example "how's the IT project coming along?" or "how's the marathon training coming along?".

How's the (project, task etc.) coming along?

You can say this when the weather is terrible to add some humour, but you could also say it if the weather really was lovely!