The Nuances Of Work Friendships

How they start, how they fade, and how they exist.

I’ve written before about the power of friends at work, as well as the power of gratitude at work, but now we’re going to get a little more nuanced. There’s a good long interview with two Wharton researchers on “Managing the Dark Side of Workplace Friendships.” A lot of good stuff in there, with the general idea being that:

There are complexities and tensions that arise because of a number of features of organizational life which make friendship more difficult to navigate in the workplace.

Let’s take this on the two main axises that people tend to encounter the “friendship at work” discussion around.

Manager to employee

Most managers are legitimately terrified of being seen as friends with their direct reports. It gives them heartburn.