Buddies with the Boss

dougiezerts · #1 08-27-2008, 01:40 PM

A girl once told me that it's not a good idea to become friends with your boss. She went on to explain that she was in a situation where she had to fire her best friend!
So I thought I'd ask, would all of you agree that it's not a good idea to become friends with your boss?
By the way, a guy in my office fell in love with one of the managers! They eventually married, and are still married!

blas · #2 08-27-2008, 02:40 PM

I don't think it's a good idea. Where I work, too many sups play "favorites" and it gets disgusting. And a lot of times it's overly apparent.....when a non-favorite and a favorite both request a day off, and the boss gives it to her favorite and NOT the employee with enough PTO or the best attendance records.

My current boss doesn't play favorites, thank gosh....but I've dealt with it before. I WAS a favorite with my ex boss. But not the invincible kind of favorite. He thought I walked on water and I was the perfect trainer (of course, he never helped me with my problems though) and he made SURE to challenge and press me to my absolute limit.

lordlundar · #3 08-27-2008, 02:41 PM

Well, that depends. If your trying to be friends with the boss for favoritism, then I will personally find you and hurt you.

On the other hand, if it's simply to be friends and make the assigned work go smoothly, then there's not an issue. You just have to remember that when you're both on the clock, boss/employee gets priority over friendship.

Heck, my supervisor was friends with all the staff she supervised and it worked out great because we all knew that the work came first. When we had someone who didn't share this, friendship with them was a moot point.

Shangri-laschild · #4 08-27-2008, 03:16 PM

I don't think it's one way or the other for everything. It really does depend on the boss and the employee but it can be tricky.

JLG · #5 08-27-2008, 03:30 PM

In most cases I don't think it is a good idea. There is a girl at work that trys to be friends with the manager and one of the assistants. She is a big time butt kisser. All of the associates see this and it can bring down morale when favorites are played.

RetailWorkhorse · #6 08-27-2008, 03:33 PM

I'm friends with my Boss. She thinks it's funny when I go batshit crazy. (*RW drops a packet of paper* "Noooooo, come baaaaack, I love yoooooooouuuuu suck." *SM and customers died laughing*)

It helps that I can speak her boyfriend's launguage (herein known as Ben-ish). He speaks Mel-lanese pretty well, too.

Kiwi · #7 08-27-2008, 04:16 PM

people you know through work, should stay as people you know through work

you can be friendly to your boss but imo if you become "friends" you are both jepodizing your professional relationship.

imagine if you would feel if you had to fire or be fired by a friend... that would strain the relationship for sure

Madhatter_67_85 · #8 08-27-2008, 04:35 PM

Nothing wrong with being friends with the boss. But everyone has to realize when its time to be friends and when its time to be supervisor/worker. Just have to realize that business is business and it doesn't/shouldn't reflect the friendship in anyway.

Evil Queen · #9 08-27-2008, 05:36 PM

I hate my current boss.

My last boss was kinda cool (Eddie and Rachel at my last hotel), The guy in New Mexico was a flake (That reem of paper is out of paper! Oh nooooo! It's a disaaaaster!!

Help me EQ!), the guy at the first hotel evar kicked ass (Bob, so cool. I miss him

). I hated the lady that was my boss at the Bakery and I miss my bosses (a wife and hubby team) when I worked at The Cafe (no stories to tell from that place, I only worked there a month and then they shut the business down). The Diner? My boss there still misses me. I was a kickass waitress even though I couldn't get the cash register to work for me. I hate running a cash register...

Gerrinson · #10 08-27-2008, 06:04 PM

Well, as seen in the above posts, it can go either way. It works fine as long as work remains 'Work'. My current boss and I could totally be friends if we had the chance to hang out when not at work. If it wasn't for his kids, he'd be joining my weekly D&D group.

On the other hand, at the grocery store, my g/f at the time was another cashier. I then got promoted to Front End Supervisor. She thought it would great to have a FES 'wrapped around her finger.' I disabused her of the notion, saying that I couldn't play favorites when I was working. This led to some serious disharmony in the relationship with soon ended.

Although, to be honest, I'm pretty sure I was better off without her anyway.