The main difference between colleague and coworker is that colleague is a person in the company with whom one works (mostly equal in position and responsibility) while co-worker is a person in the company with whom you doesn’t work either he is superior or lower to you in rank.
What is Colleague?
Colleague means the relation that exist between two person in a company because of common role, or responsibility towards company’s goal. He can be termed as an associate in a profession or office, like members of the department or faculty of an educational institute are each other’s colleagues. This word is also used for a group of people who have common purpose.
What is Coworker?
Coworker means people who work in the same organization. You may or may not be familiar with them because they work in other branch or department of the organization. Coworker are not likes colleague. Coworker can be at higher rank or lower ranks than you. He may be a CEO or office boy of your organization. He may be the staff member of another branch not in your city or country. The term is also used for the group of people who share common values although they are working independently.
Key Differences between Colleague and Coworker
- Colleague works together but coworker doesn’t work together.
- As colleague is a person who works with you so you are familiar with him but coworker may be from the other branch or department of the office and it is possible that you never met him.
- Colleague mostly stands on equal rank in an organization while coworker can be a high authority or subordinate to you.
- Colleagues share common profession or task while coworkers neither shares common profession nor task.