What is the difference between coworkers and colleagues

On the other hand, a coworker could be someone from another department or profession. If you are in a managerial position, you cannot call the janitor or security guard your colleagues or coworkers. They are your subordinates.

The same goes for your boss. You should call them your superiors. Being in the same rank means that you use certain words for each other.

There is a common jargon amongst colleagues and coworkers. Colleagues and coworkers are people that you work with. You represent the same organization and follow the rules of that company. You also share an office culture with your colleagues and coworkers.

For example, if the norm is to have departmental meetings every Friday, your colleagues and coworkers will also go through the same experience. The difference between colleagues and coworkers varies from one organization and profession to another. The following is a list of 7 different fields to show the contrast between the two terms.

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. 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. 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.

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.

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.

If you are a designer of any kind, your colleagues are other designers and professionals working on the same project. The usage of these two terms depends on the context. If we are talking about an office context, colleague and coworker will have the same meaning. Overview and Key Difference 2. Who is a Colleague 3. Who is a Coworker 4. Similarities Between Colleague and Coworker 5.

In a general sense, colleague refers to a person you work with, especially in a professional capacity. Thus, colleague can refer to any one of a group of people working together. However, the term colleague is typically used to refer to a worker who is in the same rank or state as you.