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Knowing what colleagues and coworkers are can increase your productivity by helping your workplace interactions. Regardless of your exact line of work, distinguishing between colleagues and coworkers can have a direct impact on your professional relationships. Learning who your colleagues and coworkers are is a valuable career step, but it requires some research. In this article, we discuss what colleagues and coworkers are, as well as the differences between them.
What are colleagues?
A colleague generally means a person you work with that has the same professional end goals as you do, although you may have different roles, skills and rank. Therefore, the word can refer to anyone within a group of people that work together. "Colleague" can also have a different meaning, when it refers to professionals within the same profession, with similar skills, rank and work duties, irrespective of the organization they work for. Two people on opposite sides of the world in similar professions can be colleagues.
What are coworkers?
Coworkers are people who work for the same company. They can have different ranks, job specializations and specific roles within a company or a project, but the fact that they all have a common goal, which is the success of the organization they work for, makes them coworkers. For example, a department manager, sales representative, social media expert, assistant manager and janitor who all work for the same company are all coworkers.
The main difference between colleagues and coworkers
The most important aspect to consider when considering someone a "coworker" or "colleague" is that a colleague doesn't necessarily work for the same company or within the same project as you do, whereas a coworker does. So, although both words can have the same meaning—which is people you work with—the word "colleague" has an alternate meaning because it could also refer to someone who is a member of the same profession as you but working for a different organization. Another difference is the implied difference in rank between colleagues and coworkers. Colleagues usually have similar or complementary roles and ranks, irrespective of who they work with. Coworkers, although they work for the same organization by definition, can have totally different roles and ranks. Coworkers can have professional authority over you or can have a more entry-level role than you, while colleagues are usually neither superior nor inferior to each other in rank within an organization.
Examples of colleagues and coworkers in different professional contexts
These examples show the differences between coworkers and colleagues depending on the specific role and domain you are working in:
Teaching
If you're a teacher, a coworker can be anyone working for the same educational institution as you do. If you work at a high school, all other teachers are your coworkers, but so are the principal, the school nurse and the maintenance staff. Your colleagues, however, are all high school teachers all over the world. This means that the teachers working at your high school are both your coworkers and your colleagues, all non-teaching employees at your high school are just your coworkers and all high school teachers in other institutions are just your colleagues.
Healthcare
Unlike teachers, who usually teach students by themselves, medical doctors usually rely on other personnel, such as nurses, when performing their duties. Therefore, a doctor can refer to a nurse as a colleague, as well as to other doctors that collaborate with them. They are also their coworkers, along with all other hospital employees, including other doctors of different specializations that care for other patients. However, a doctor's colleagues are also fellow doctors who work for different institutions but have similar specializations.
Journalism
If you are a journalist, a colleague can be anyone that works with you on the same developing story, such as another journalist, an editor, the camera crew or others. You also refer to as a colleague when you mention a fellow journalist that's working on a different story for a different news organization. Your coworkers, however, are all other employees of the media company you work for, such as human resources staff, the sales department employees, the maintenance crew and everyone else.
Sales
If you work in a sales-related position, your colleagues are all other staff members that work to help you meet your sales goals. They are typically other salespeople that have the same targets as you do or support staff that helps you with administrative duties. You can also refer to salespeople working for different organizations as colleagues. Your coworkers, however, are all other employees within the organization that indirectly contribute to sales. They can be marketing professionals, customer service employees, product developers or others.
Software development
If you work as a back-end developer for an online app, your colleagues can be other back-end developers working alongside you, but also front-end developers that work with you and have the same overall goal as you, which is to make a good looking and functional app. Your colleagues are also other back-end developers working within the same company or for other companies, with whom you share your professional rank and skillset.Your coworkers, however, are other people employed by the same company but who don't directly interact with you, like marketing staff, content writers, human resources staff and anyone else working for the same company as you but not on the same project as you.
The restaurant business
If you work as a chef, all the kitchen staff helping you cook meals for your guests are considered to be your colleagues. These can include those who clean dishes and work stations, those who assist with unloading deliveries, sous chefs and others. You can also call any other chef in the world a colleague, as you share work responsibilities and rank. Your coworkers are all the restaurant's staff, like servers, bartenders, hall managers, bus people, maintenance workers and everyone else.
Design
If you are a designer of any kind, your colleagues are other designers and professionals working on the same project. If you are working to design a company logo, for example, the advertising employees that help you with design ideas are also your colleagues. Fellow designers that work in similar roles for other companies can also be called your colleagues. Your coworkers are also all other employees that work for the same organization as you, with whom you don't collaborate directly.
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