Job dilema with a friend/possible co-worker

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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Just over a year ago, I switched jobs. I really like my new job, and have no intention to leave anytime soon.

At my previous job, I worked with a good friend of mine (he actually got me the job there). It sounded like a good idea at the time, but I quickly realized I did not like working with him at all. Basically, we have many friends in common, and I enjoy hanging out with him and them, but when you add that to working together 40 hours a week, it gets to be a little much. Also, I think he’s got kind of an odd attitude at work, which is incredibly annoying to me. I ended up leaving the job we worked together after 12 months for a number of reasons, one big one (but probably not the main one) being I didn’t like working with him.

I do think he also disliked working together, but I don’t know for sure. I think we probably got on each other’s nerves (I know he got on mine).

Now, he’s looking for a new job, and his resume has come across my boss’ desk. He didn’t purposely apply to my company, his resume was forwarded by a third party, and I actually doubt he’d have applied if he’d known it would have been for my employer. But, now that’s his resume is in the loop, I think he’ll try to interview and apply for the job.

He is currently employed, but he’s sick of his current (my former) employer. He’s been looking for probably close to a year now, and hasn’t had much luck. I think he may be getting kind of anxious which is why I’m worried he may pursue the job with my employer even though I think his feelings about working with me could very well be in line with how I feel about working with him.

To be honest, I think his chances of landing the job are 50/50 at best, and I’m not sure he’s qualified for it, but I do think there’s at least a chance he’d progress through the interviewing process and be offered the job. My boss did ask me about him because he saw we worked together previously, and now that my boss knows he’s a friend of mine, I think it’s to his benefit. I have no idea if he’d accept a job if offered, and I really, really think he’d prefer not to, but he may be feeling desperate and go ahead, which I think would kind of screw us both over.

When my boss asked me about my buddy, it caught me off guard and I didn’t know what to say, and I didn’t bring up that I personally hated working with him. I kind of regret that, and wish I’d just have said something right away to nip this in the bud. My boss only asked me about if my friend could do the job or what skills he had, and didn’t ask me if I thought we could work well together (not that he should have). Once my boss realized he was my friend, he didn’t ask me a whole lot else.

My question is what should I do now? I absolutely don’t want to work with my buddy again, but it seems like the process has begun which could lead to that happening. If my boss asks me about my buddy again, would I be a jerk to tell him I’d prefer not working with him. What if my boss doesn’t bring it up, would I be out of line to bring it up myself? Would it make me look bad at work? Should I just wait and see what happens and cross my fingers that this sorts itself out on its own and he doesn’t get the job? I doubt I could even bring this up to my buddy, but if I did and told him I’d prefer he didn’t work with my would that make me a jerk or look like a dick?

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Whoops, meant to put this in IMHO. Don’t know if it fits here or not.

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If it were me, I would not say anything to the boss or to the friend. IMO, if you don’t want to work with the friend, then it is your perogative to look elsewhere if he is hired, not to try to blackball him from getting hired.

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Thanks for the reply. I pretty much agree with you, and I should have added that this is what I’ll likely end up doing. I’m having a hard time seeing a course of action other than staying out of it, which wouldn’t be out of line on my part.

I also should ask, from my friends perspective, should he pursue this job? Like I said, I strongly suspect that he disliked working with me as much as I disliked working with him (although I honestly can’t be certain). In fact, I’d say its a coin flip as far as if he’d even take this job if offered because of that, although I have no way of knowing what he’s thinking. Assuming he also thinks we don’t work well together, would he be at all in the wrong to puruse a job that would put us both in that situation again?

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Well, I did briefly discuss this with my buddy as he brought it up to me. He basically asked my what I’d think if he got the job (that’s a long way off right now), and I pretty much said that I’m not going to say don’t take it, and its definitely not my place to say something like that, but we both know working together is probably not the best idea. He did confirm he didn’t really like it working together at our old job. I asked him if he’d take the job if offered, and he said it would depend on a lot of things, money being the main factor.

Unless my boss directly asks me what I’d think of working with my buddy or if I think we’d work well together, I don’t think there’s much else I can do without being out of line or disloyal to my friend. If my boss were to ask me those questions however, I’d probably answer them truthfully and not feel bad about it.

I think there’s about a 50/50 chance of him ending up with a job offer, and a 50/50 chance of him taking it if offered, so it would seem there’s about a 75% chance this works out for the best I guess. At least I’ve got that going for me.