Chief
Related Posts
Rising Star
Tell me what to do in Iceland
Here’s my WFH coworker, Jonas! She’s 8 1/2.
Additional Posts in Finance
Maybe I'll avoid bounce tonight, maybe not
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
You are fine.. There were times earlier in my career when I was more open to making friends at work, mostly when I had more free time outside of the job. These days, I tend to keep things polite and professional, and that works fine for me. I enjoy my coworkers, but we don’t connect outside of work. If you ever feel like building closer connections, even small things like joining a lunch or casual chat can help. But if not, that’s totally okay too, everyone has their own rhythm.
exactly... and its not a bad thing AT ALL
We have friendly relationships. We're not friends. I haven't seen any of them outside of work (aside from our annual holiday party) in the three years I've been here, and that's just fine with me. I spend enough time with these people while I'm at work to not want to see them outside of it.
I have no tag to our relationship, we are friendly when at work but we are not friends, never hang out outside work, never talk about any thing personal and sticky work talk only.
My teammates are like family. I see them 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I see them more than my own family. You don't have to be like us but when you find a place where you have the same interests, banter, and vibe; you just turn into family.
You must be paid 250k+
My team is very close only because we start our meetings talking about how our weekends were and what we did. At the end of the week, everyone asks any fun weekend plans? Then, on monday, we ask how the weekend went.. goes round and round.
That's the only reason why we are close and it's good. Previously, I was on a team that was somewhat cold. Never spoke about outside things.. just the task at hand. It was refreshing and surprising when I went to my current team and this is how they start the conversations.
I’ll do the occasional happy hour with a close few coworkers but we’ve never truly hung out outside of work otherwise
I have always kept it polite and casual. I made the mistake in a past job years ago to make friends, I was promoted to team lead, and since we were friends some of the employees thought it was fine not to complete their jobs as for them I would just let it go. So after that I keep it polite and casual.
Like others said, work is work be professional but they aren't your friends nor should one treat them like friends
I've been what I consider lucky, in that my teams have always been very friendly and close. We have group chats on our personal devices, which is very active, and we don't discuss work on them. They are definitely friends.
I still have close friends who were team mates, but I haven't worked with them for years. We constantly communicate.
In other countries, I've been told that even going out for a drink after work is exceedingly rare. I don't see anything wrong either way. As long as the relationships are at least professional, and the work is getting done, that's all that is required.
There were a few jobs in my life where I was willing to make friends at work.. I was single and had a lot of free time, but now, I am just polite and professional in most of my jobs. I enjoy my time with them, but we don't do anything outside work. If you ever want to build more connections, even just grabbing lunch or joining a casual convo can open a door without a big effort. Otherwise, no worries at all. Besties are everywhere haha
Chief
I try to maintain cordial relationship with people I come in contact with and my colleagues are not exempt. As for being friends, I really don’t think so.
I kept a close friend at work and it hurt me bad and almost cost me my job.
Basically we would call and text each other. She was Indian and very observant at work. She called after work to tell me all the office gossips and we laughed together. We also had lunch etc together.
She spoke to my parents etc. One day, I tried calling her and she didn’t pick up and I left a VM with a joking curse word, which she frequently uses on me and fondly called me “Idiot”
When we had a disagreement , she took my voice note to HR. It was a big mess.
Since then, I don’t maintain friendships at work and was younger then. It’s more cordial but I don’t want friends at work. It’s dangerous.
Relationships with coworkers can really vary. Some folks I've worked with have definitely become good friends over time, the kind you'd hang out with outside of work, while others are more just friendly colleagues I get along with during the workday. Honestly, it's perfectly fine not to form deep bonds if that's not your style or if you're just focused on getting your work done; everyone's different in how they approach workplace connections.