Coworkers represent a fifth challenge to working with dignity, but they also represent an important resource. Coworkers help provide meaning in work through the sharing of work life experiences and through friendships. Coworkers can also provide a basis for group solidarity and mutual support in the face of denials of dignity at work. Some minimum amount of support from coworkers is essential for the successful defense of dignity in almost any situation – from the smallest encounter with a supervisor to large scale and lengthy strikes. Coworkers, however, can also make daily life at work a nightmare through gossip, cliques, interference, scapegoating, and ostracism. The greatest ally in the defense of dignity can sometimes become its greatest enemy – significant abuse at work can come from coworkers as well as from employers.

The importance of coworkers will only increase in post-bureaucratic workplaces because of increased pressure toward employee involvement. Indeed, greater employee involvement is often associated with increased conflict among coworkers as problems and stresses are transferred from worker–management relations to relations among coworkers (Delbridge 1998). Maneuvering, brown nosing, and backstabbing among workers can increase. The challenge for workers is to take advantage of the opportunities offered by heightened involvement to improve their working situation while maintaining solidarity with their coworkers and avoiding intensified competition (Hodson et al. 1993). Increasing racial and gender diversity in the workplace, which may result in additional stresses on coworker relations, also heightens the significance of coworker relations (Jackson and Ruderman 1995).