IELTS band 9 essay: relationships with colleagues

Here you can find advice on how to structure IELTS essay and see IELTS model answer for relationships with colleagues topic. Question type: to what extent do you agree/disagree.

Here is the question card:

Establishing good relationships in the workplace is not important, as the primary goal of every person is to focus on work.

To what extent do you agree with this statement?


Your question asks you to what extent do you agree/disagree, and this means you can partially agree or disagree with the statement. Unlike "classic" agree/disagree questions, where you must write whether you fully agree or fully disagree, this question type allows you to choose arguments from both sides.

In this essay you're asked about:

Before writing this IELTS essay, you should decide to what extent do you agree or disagree with the statement and then choose nice arguments to support your opinion.


Now let's look at some of the possible arguments:

  1. Complete agreement:
    • friends at work may distract you and decrease your productivity
    • it is better to focus only on work in the workplace, to have faster career growth
    • good relationships with colleagues are hard to retain and are very emotionally demanding

  2. Complete disagreement:
    • good relationships make it more comfortable for you to work
    • if you're on good terms with your co-workers, you might ask them for help
    • good relations with colleagues result in better teamwork

  3. Partial agreement/disagreement:
    • just combine ideas from the previous points

How to structure my answer?

Surely, there are a lot of ways to organise this essay. You can completely agree with the statement, completely disagree, or you can partially agree/disagree. The third option - partially agree/disagree essay - is presented in this lesson. Here is one possible way of structuring the answer to produce a band 9 essay:

Introduction: rephrase the topic and state your opinion.

Body paragraphs:

Conclusion: sum up the ideas from body paragraphs and briefly give your opinion.


Band 9 essay sample (relationships with colleagues)

It is commonly argued that the primary goal of every employee is to focus on his/her job duties, while being on good terms with colleagues is not crucial. Although I agree that being productive at work is more important than trying to befriend all colleagues, I think that it is advantageous to have at least a few friends in the workplace.

On the one hand, maintaining good relations with all co-workers is often hard and even counter-productive. Firstly, it is very emotionally demanding to forge friendships in the office. It is almost impossible to cater for every colleague’s needs and interests, be nice even with people who irritate you, and make friends under stressful conditions. Moreover, sometimes it is wiser to eschew the niceties of interaction in favor of productivity. For instance, if all people were trying to build good relationships with everyone in their workplace, much less work would be done.

On the other hand, there are many compelling reasons to get closer to our colleagues. First of all, it is very beneficial to build warm relationships with those who surround you most of the time. Many full-time employees spend more of their waking hours with co-workers than they do with their families. And thus, people who have a few friends in their offices are usually happier than their solitary peers. Secondly, good interpersonal relations result in an improved teamwork. It is not a secret that team members who like and respect each other tend to collaborate on a project more effectively.

In conclusion, we need to find a healthy balance between being productive at work and forming social bonds. The ideal option is to find friends in the workplace, but not at the cost of our own productivity.

(290 words)


Useful vocabulary

atmosphere in the workplace

career growth = career ladder

cater for every colleague’s needs and interests = pay attention to every colleague’s needs/interests and be nice

co-workers = colleagues

compelling reasons = serious reasons

eschew the niceties of interaction in favor of productivity = avoid formal kindness and be more productive instead

full-time employee = employee working 40 hours per week

improved teamwork

job satisfaction

to be on good terms with colleagues = to build warm relationships with colleagues = to get closer to colleagues

to effectively collaborate on a project = to effectively work together on a project

to focus on job duties

to forge friendships in the office = to make friends in the office

to form social bonds = to make friends