Your colleagues, your friends?

December 21, 2011|Interesting Facts, Tips At work| No comments yet

Getting along with all of your colleagues is extremely important and makes going to work each day a much nicer experience. You must be friendly with your colleagues to make working together easy, but that doesn’t mean that your colleagues are your friends.
Friends are people that you enjoy spending time with and can talk to about what’s happening in your life. You never have to be worried about what you say or how it will affect others. You don’t need to feel self conscience with your real friends. There are boundaries you can cross with friends that should never be crossed with colleagues.
Keep in mind that when you are hired to do a job, you are hired to do just that. You are not paid to make friends, socialize on the clock, or spend time holding conversations about topics that are not related to work. Of course, you should always remain pleasant with your colleagues to ensure a comfortable working environment.
Being friendly simply means that you have a positive attitude, you are willing to help others, and you acknowledge everyone equally. That doesn’t mean that you share your secrets or personal feelings. That doesn’t mean you talk badly about others to someone you are friendly with at work. These things have a way of coming back to haunt you in the long run.
Keep in mind that things change in the work environment. Let’s say that you want to apply for another job within your company, or you want a promotion. If is definitely more comfortable to go up against a colleague for a higher position than it would be to have to compete against a friend. It is also possible that you could become the boss one day. In this case, you wouldn’t want things you said or did with what you thought was a friend to come back to hurt you in any way.
Competition at work is always present. This can make it difficult to know who is genuine and who is just trying to sabotage you to make himself look better. This means that it is never a good idea to confide in a colleague as your colleague may be able to use information against you that can harm your professional reputation.
Your best bet is to maintain professional distance, so that you don’t become too close or too friendly with your colleagues.