why i will never work with a friend ever again…

It’s graduation szn… are you finding a job with a friend from school? This is my experience working with a friend and it is one of the biggest mistakes I have made in my life 💀 Here’s why you shouldn’t work with your friends in the same company + department and how I dealt with it during and after it ended.

🚩👩🏻‍🦯 Most things get personal…

As we all know, people LOVE to compare, especially when they know that you’re friends. Unavoidably, people usually assume that the both of you have the same standards and work well together, that’s why both of you applied together/ introduced the other one in, right??? SO, when one of you underperforms or has bad work ethics, it WILL be mentioned to you AND indirectly involve you. No matter what the situation is or whether it is to your favour, trust me, it is still frustrating. You might also be constantly told to “teach” and “guide” your friend because “He/ she is your friend what”… 🙄 If conflict happens between you and your friend because of work matters, it WILL BE taken personally and affect your friendship. It is inevitable, we are all humans with emotions… (unless the both of you are to able handle conflicts super professionally w no hard feelings)

🚩👩🏻‍🦯 Friendships get messy

If your friend is overprotective of you/ gets jealous easily when you make new friends and become closer to other colleagues (or a toxic friend in general), it creates unnecessary tension in the workplace and makes other colleagues uncomfortable being around you when your friend is around. Plus, if you are in bad terms with your friend or do not talk to each other anymore due to whatever reason, it is extremely obvious in the workplace and it’s not a good look at work… Your colleagues will be put in a bad position as well.

🚩👩🏻‍🦯 Overdependent

This actually depends on you and your friend’s personalities. If you’re a person who usually help others (I used to be this) and your friend usually relies on other people, THEN BEWARE. When they mess up at work, they might expect you to be the hero saving the damsel in distress 💀 or, asking you to double check their work and following in your exact footsteps when they don’t know what to do/ don’t want to get in trouble. Bcos in school, usually we monkey see monkey do right?? 🐵 But when something goes wrong, it is not their fault cos they were just following you 🤡

🚩👩🏻‍🦯 No/ Unclear boundaries

As fresh graduates, you might not know that salaries or bonuses should be kept confidential at work, esp when you’re doing the same jobscope cos it makes either party feel UNFAIR/ NOT GOOD ENOUGH which just adds on toxicity in the workplace?? (Eg if you are performing and your friend is unperforming, but you are getting the same pay raise) As friends, you might also tell each other about your colleagues OR vice versa = MORE toxicity + unhappy working environment?!?!

Usually, it’s very difficult to separate work + personal life bc emotions 🫠, so how do you maintain this friendship outside of work??

💁🏻‍♀️ Set your boundaries and be strict with it. Don’t give exceptions because “they are your friend”

Put the friendship aside and handle work conflicts just as how you would with other colleagues in a professional way that does not affect personal feelings or hold grudges against each other. Work is work!! Be honest with them if they are affecting your work and if they don’t care about you enough to improve themselves or make a change, minimise contact with them at work. If it affects you to a point where it is getting serious and you’re very unhappy, confront them again and voice it out during peer evaluations and let upper management deal with it if nothing changes. It is brutal, and if you don’t agree with it, leave the company.

🤧 It ruined your friendship and you find it awkward to hang out with your friend… how now? Keep communications to the bare minimum, as little as you can. Drift away slowly from them, but if it affects your mental health just cut them off completely la at this point 💀💀 Surround yourself with positivity, good vibes and healthy relationships!!

#lifewithmin #jobhunting #friendship #advice #adultingthings #adultingtips #Adulting101 #worklife #corporatelife #AfterHours