Having workmates can massively increase the level of satisfaction an individual has with in a job, a new opinion poll has found.

The Gallup Organisation - the international market research and consultancy company - interviewed five million Americans to discover to what extent friends influence peoples' working lives.

The study found if a worker has at least three close friends at work they are 46 per cent more likely to be extremely satisfied in the job and 88 per more likely to be happy with their lives in general.

When a worker has a best friend at the office they are seven times more likely to be engaged in a job, eager to work with passion and creativity and make fewer mistakes, the research claims.

This survey has been combined with the research of Tom Rath, author of the book Vital Friends. He says scientists have found interacting with friends account for and cause the highest and happiest points in our day.

But managers see friends at the workplace in a different light.

One third of 80,000 managers interviewed feel familiarity breeds contempt. Some companies even had formal policies preventing managers and employees having friendships beyond the workplace.

Other findings included workers feeling close friendships at work acted as a compensation for higher pay.