I don’t mean becoming good friends with your boss. I mean taking a new job where your direct supervisor is an old pal. Or hiring a buddy work directly under you.
Ever happened to you? How’d it work out? Was is awkward? Did it screw up the friendship? Was it good to be able to talk to your boss/subordinate as a friend? Were you able to compartmentalize the relationship? How, in short, did it all work out?
I had a close childhood friend work for me. We were able to keep work and not work compartmentalized. We talked about it before my promotion and it was never an issue. More than five years later, neither of us work for the company any more. We are still friends.
Personaly I have always had problems when I have hired relatives:(.
I expected more from them in commitment to the business than I would a non relative. Was it fair, no, but it was the reality of my reaction.
I’ve been in both cases - the first was at a startup several years ago where a bunch of college buddies worked. After the 3rd reorg/huge layoffs, the single hardware guy left was placed under me. Wasn’t a big deal - it was mostly so he wouldn’t have to report directly to the VP of development. He was on his own 90% of the time anyway.
Then I was hired by a friend 4 years ago. We went to college together, and had worked together as colleagues in the aforementioned startup. Being a direct report to him was strange, but we managed to keep everything professional. We kept friend stuff and work stuff completely separate.
When he was told to layoff half his staff, I survived, and I know at least one person who didn’t was a little resentful that he had shown me favoritism. I don’t think he did, or at least it wasn’t blatant, but yes, I suspect it would have been difficult for him to put me on the layoff list. He left the company 2 years ago, and we’re still friends.
I hired a good friend for a temporary job, and it didn’t work out well. Although a brilliant and wonderful guy, he turned out to be a little clueless about some aspects of the work we were doing. I was answerable to the customer, and possibly oversensitive about how my buddy was reflecting on me, so I yelled at him a couple times and then exiled him to a less-important part of the work. Things were noticeably distant between us for quite a while after. It was more my fault than his, but to this day I’ve been extremely wary of trying to work with people who were friends first. Becoming friends with someone you work with is totally different.
A friend of mine was the lead student attorney for one of our law school clinics, and recruited me when an opening came up. In theory, I answered to her - but we worked well enough together that it just didn’t matter. Would work for her again without hesitation.
I went to work for a good buddy once, and was there 15 years. We talked it over before I started, and I made sure that the job and our friendship remained separated. Worked for us.