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Let's say a friend of yours has been transfered to your workplace/department, and then you say:

Welcome my friend, we are blessed to have you in/at our workplace.

Both of them make sense, that's why I'm not sure which is which? Help.

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    'Blessed' seems a bit strong & off-puttingly quasi-religious. Unless the guy actually has god-like powers, I'd pull back the sentiment about a mile & a half. "Nice to have you here." "It's great that you could join the team." etc.
    – DoneWithThis.
    Jul 8, 2018 at 6:43

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Actually, neither "in" nor "at" fits. They are awkward because they are prepositions, which communicate physical relationships between persons and/or things. You may say, "my friend is at the beach," because he or she is not present, but if your friend is with you again and you tell another person, "my friend was at the beach," it seems like you're excluding your friend from the conversation. For the circumstance you describe it would be better to say, "...have you join us in our workplace." If your friend is only visiting you may say, "...have you visit us at our workplace." Languages closer to Sanskrit than English treat prepositions differently than English and perhaps your confusion is characteristic of this difference. No worries, "in" or "at" would be understood and should be politely accepted.

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  • We are blessed to have you join or joined us in our workplace?, which is more correct?
    – John Arvin
    Jul 8, 2018 at 11:40
  • We are blessed to have you join us...We are blessed that you have joined us in...
    – Fibonacci
    Jul 9, 2018 at 22:33
  • What? Could you be more clear...
    – John Arvin
    Jul 10, 2018 at 0:04
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    The phrase, "...to have you join us in...," uses the infinitive of "have," i.e., "to have." Such phrases are generally thought to be easy to understand. On the other hand, "...that you have joined us in..." is a little more complicated. In context, they both mean the same thing. // English is a growing language with about 25 million new students each year. It is okay to not speak it perfectly. We must work to understand you as you work to understand us.
    – Fibonacci
    Jul 10, 2018 at 2:26
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I would use:

Welcome my friend, we are blessed to have you at our workplace.

because workplace is a location, "the place where you work". However, in:

Welcome my friend, we are blessed to have you in our department.

you are part of a group of people (the department). Though in the end, you need to decide if the context refers to a location or part of a group.

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  • I just want to confirm this, ''at our workplace'' refers to the physical relationship of the subject and the object, whereas, ''in our department'' is the belongingness. Am I correct with the way I see it now?
    – John Arvin
    Jul 8, 2018 at 11:43
  • For "in our department", yes. For "at our workplace" it is simply pointing out a location. It doesn't matter where the speaker or object are.
    – user3169
    Jul 8, 2018 at 17:10

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