Why can’t you be friends at work?
I see all these posts painting corporate negatively: do your job, be professional, but don’t be friendly. Your coworkers and clients are not your friends. Why? We spend hours and hours working together weekly, maybe if we all just starting communicating to each other like we were humans the workplace wouldn’t be so demoralizing. I want to know what’s going on in peoples lives. Tell me about that concert you went to or the renovations at your house.

likesmartfunny
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You've never had your own words used against you or trusted someone at work when you were going through a rough patch, and it shows. Don't tell people they're ridiculous who have had it happen and are weary of making the same mistake again. One of the absolute worst things is to have your business spread around because you trusted someone when you just needed an ear to listen and show empathy.

likehelpfulsmart

I totally agree. The world would be a better place.

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Can we at least all agree that HR is a bunch of rats?

likefunnyhelpful

My most negative HR experience was with, no surprise, FCB.

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This is my agency team - art directors, writers, lots of AE, AS, ACDs, a media buyer, and a few administrative assistants. This was taken the night most of the people in this photo were laid off. In typical style; we all met up for dinner and drinks and a group photo.

We were an assortment of co-workers and friends who worked together, went out to lunch in different groups together, and many of us hung out together at least two or three nights a week. Drinks, dancing, karaoke. We had a blast. And most of us are still in touch after more than ten years.

We worked better together because we were friends. We cut each other slack on off days, and celebrated business and personal triumphs. It was a tight, supportive group.

I think it’s sad if all you have where you work are just co-workers. I can’t imagine that. In all my years in advertising, I never worked at a single agency where I didn’t have at least five friends that I spent time with socially.

I even had eight friends from FCB attend my wedding, including my art director, CD, and several people from other teams.

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likeuplifting

This is the way.

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Because if you died tomorrow they’d be back to business as usual by the end of the week.

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And that’s fine. I wouldn’t expect my friends or family not to carry on if I died.

But the idea of sharing too much into because it will be used against you seems absurd. Like the small talk we have now is dumb because people are afraid to talk.

“How was your weekend?” “It was good”. That’s just pointless.

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Because you can’t trust anyone. We don’t have colleague comradery . It’s not personal, but everyone is out to get you. They’re loyal to their paycheck and nothing else. It’s the nature of our society, culture, and lack of union.

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There's a lot of shades and nuance to this.

I'm here to provide for my family. As a byproduct of that I do sometimes make friends with my colleagues — how could you not? — but that's not why I come here.

What I really dislike is being asked about my personal life in a large group setting. I do not want to tell 10+ people in a room what I did on the weekend. Why do large groups need to know that?

If you want to bond with others, do it organically the way it happens in real life. Don't force it, and don't be surprised when occasionally someone doesn't want to do so.

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👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I have plenty of friends at work. But a lot of times these kinds of comments are made because they want the 2010 culture back where we were burning the midnight oil in office pretending it was “fun”. My work friends are people to talk to during work hours.

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Do what works best for you but don't lose perspective.
If you're at a small place or have a small team it's easier to bond over shared experiences, good and bad.
If you're at a big agency, it's harder. There's turnover, office politicking, and flat out people who aren't good at their jobs that put more pressure and stress on you and yours. So yeah, might not be all buddy buddy with them, but maybe there's a handful you can genuinely be friends with.
Clients - be friendly, you're not friends, especially if you're in the creative department.

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It’s hard to make friends when half the people you work with would gleefully ratfuck you if it would give them even the slightest edge with the company. There are plenty of decent people too, for sure, but it’s impossible to tell which is which sometimes.

Ironically, it’s usually only after you leave or are let go from a job that you find out who your real friends there were.

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Because realizing that societal expectations that spending over half of your life working and making money for a corporation instead of living life as you want is normal will make people burn everything down to the ground.

likesmart

This!

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The corporate system is set up that way.
Also, maybe just my perception, but it’s getting more expensive to sustain a comfortable living. I don’t have much time or energy in me to become real friends with someone at work. I really do enjoy when there’s someone at work who you can share ideas or truly collaborate with on projects who’s passionate about the same things. But to expand that beyond work and share more personal things, I don’t have capacity for that.

When you’re let go a lot of your “friends at work” will shit talk you behind your back.

If you are laid off or retire tomorrow, you won't be first to give me money or visit me.

Just keep it professional. Yes, we can have small talk, but between billable work, I don't think we have time to become authentic friends. Friends I made at work happened after I left a company. If we go to events together then it can happen organically but don't feel offended if your colleague is also pretending so they can get through the day. With different religions, politics, values, etc. you just can't pressure anyone who is just there to pay their bills.

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