Why it is not a good idea to be friends with your colleagues

Your colleagues: you spend quite a bit of time with them. So you might as well look for something you really enjoy doing.

On average, 90,000 hours, out of the 500,000 hours you are awake in your life. That's a lot. However, it turns out that it's better not to be friends with the people you sit next to at the office.

And that has everything to do with performance at work. Sometimes you just can't be friends privately, because you need to discuss what's going on honestly. And then it has to be tough, businesslike, cool, cold. If you really like each other, it becomes incredibly difficult to say outright that you don't want to raise her salary. That she isn't offered a bonus trip, and also no thirteenth month. You can end up in a tricky situation where you don't want to lose your friendship, but also don't know how to come out financially at work otherwise. And then you start doing everything halfway. Half nice, half businesslike. Just not quite.

Sometimes you just have to make tough decisions, and then a friendship only gets in the way. Sorry, that's how it is in the grown-up world full of business and income and targets and expenses. Even if you have a relatively similar position, it can get complicated, because you feel that she is slacking off. You also see that she goes home earlier – and starts later. That gnaws at you somewhere. You have to see it this way: your colleagues are your work friends. You work with them, and it's very nice if you have good contact with each other. If you can laugh together at the office: incredibly important, but keep it at the office. Have a wine together there, toast to the good monthly figures, and discuss your deepest secrets with your own friends who have nothing to do with your salary.

Really helps you, in life.

Image: The Bold Type