Spending time with friends is amazing, isn’t it? Meeting your closest buddies in a bar after a long day at work is all that we need sometimes. A few moments with them fill us with fresh energy that we need to get through the mundane life.
Now, think how incredible would it be if you worked with your friends. Well, not exactly! If you ask people who have worked with their pals at any point in their life, more than half of them would say that it was not a good experience as they had hoped for.
The idea sure sounds brilliant as you get to work with the people you trust, admire, enjoy being around, and who make you laugh. However, things do not always turn out well; perhaps because people do not know how to mix business and pleasure in the right way.
Many problems arise when you start working with your friend. For instance, you may not always agree with each other, and this might turn into conflict. As friends, one person could be dominant, and the other could be submissive, but these dynamics are not the same when it comes to business. A lot is at stake here, and when the submissive friend does not agree with something that the dominant one is pursuing, things escalate, and it can turn into conflict. Conflicts are also inevitable since you cannot expect two people to agree on everything. And this becomes a problem when friend works together.
However, this is still not the most difficult part of working with a friend. The real challenge lies in separating personal life from the professional one since it all gets mixed up when your buddy is also your boss, employee business partner or a client. People forget when they have to be friends and when to keep things formal. And this affects everything.
There may be myriad problems in working with friends, but we are not saying that nobody can make it work. You merely need to know how to find the perfect balance between being a friend and being associated professionally and you can enjoy both aspects of your life. Mentioned below are some tips that will come in handy for you if you are thinking about or are already working with a friend.
#1. Define Roles And Responsibilities
When you are working with your friends, there is no room for assumptions. What is expected from both of you has to be clearly defined in order to make your arrangement work. Just like you would never employ someone else without clearly defining their duties, responsibilities, and authorities before, the same should be the case with your friend. Apart from that, you also need to define what your friend can expect and not expect from you inside the professional environment. This needs to be done before or at the time the two of you start working together as partners or as a boss and an employee.
#2. No Exceptions For Friends
It is quite common to see people being lenient towards their friends in a professional setting, but those arrangements do not last too long. If you want your professional as well as the social relationship with your buddy to survive this test of time, then stop making exceptions for them and expecting them to make exceptions for you. If you are your friend’s boss, then treat them just like any other employee when you are at work, and if it’s the other way around, then expect the same from them. This kind of behavior can also be demotivating for other employees who see one person getting away with anything all the time.
#3. Value Their Worth
Friends who work together start to lose each other’s worth as money tends to become more important than friendship. One friend often begins to take advantage of the other, and things take a turn for the worse. They no longer see each other as friends who have been there for them for years. Instead, they know the other person as someone they can make money off. This is what you need to avoid if you want your arrangement to be effective.
#4. Respect Financial Agreements
Mixing friendship and money is a recipe for disaster, especially when it is in business. So, if you have decided to work with your friend, then steer clear of loans and other advances. Pay them just like you would have paid any other person for the same position and pay them what they are due on time. You may not want to talk money with your friend when jumping into bed with them, but that could prove to be a mistake later. Also, working with friends doesn’t mean that one gets to take advantage of the other.
#5. Never Run From Difficult Conversations
No one wants to have a difficult, work-related conversation with someone who is close to them, but that ceases to be an option when you are working with them. Now your professional and personal life are intertwined, and you can’t escape the situation. A lot may be at stake when you indulge in a tense talk with a friend, but not doing it or delaying it can make things even worse. Make it respectful and constructive, so the both of you can get past the feelings of anger or resentment that may be emerging.
#6. Have An Exit Strategy In Place
There is an end to almost everything in life and not understanding that only results in pain. Same is the case when you are working with a friend. Therefore, it is better to discuss the possibility that you or they might want an out from this arrangement in future. Make a plan for the same and when that time comes, keep your negative feelings aside, if there are any, and let it happen gracefully and graciously.
#7. Respect Privacy And Confidentiality, Yours And Your Friend’s
Privacy and confidentiality are important in every relationship in life and friendship is no different. You may be working with your friend, but there are some things they need to know, and there are some that they do not. The propriety company information and other intricacies of the business that they are not required to know to fulfill their duties should not be shared under any circumstances. In addition to that, you should not also demand any information that you are not professionally needed to have.
#8. Nurture Friendship Outside Work
Do not think that if you are working with your friend, you do not need to be one. In a formal setting, you are just partners or employee and boss. So, you need to set some time aside for being friends that you always have been. Every once in a while, go out for lunch, dinner or a few drinks and act like you used to before you started working together. Just make sure that when you are meeting with friends, business or work does not come in your way.
Working with a friend is easy, the difficult part is making this arrangement work in a manner that your professional or personal life does not suffer because of it. Just keep these pointers in mind if you are about to or have just started working with a friend. It’s not a herculean task, but you need to know what to do to make it work.
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Working with a friend can either be the best decision you make in your friendship and it can also be the worst. It depends on how you manage it. I have seen who begin to work together and became closer than ever and I also know people who have lost their closest of friends just because they worked together. So how your relationship is going to turn out when you mix it with business is not something that you can forecast. But it still does depends on your actions.
To those who are thinking about doing something on the similar lines, one thing that I would like to suggest is to never to forget that the person you are dealing with is a friend. Nothing is more important in the world than the people you love and you should not forget that just because you are now working with them. Money does not matter more than the people who are close to your heart. However, this feeling should be mutual. If you are forgiving the mistakes your friend makes, then he or she should also know that you have not given them the right to fool you.
Another important things about working with friends is to know that it will not last forever. People enter into such situations hastily thinking about how great it would be for them to be working with their friend. But what they fail to comprehend or keep in mind is that this situation may not last forever. The friend can leave if he or she finds a better work opportunity and in all likeliness, you will also do the same. So it is better to be prepared for such a situation since you do not want to be caught in it by surprise.
Also, it is significant to not let your other professional relationships suffer because of your friendship. Your other employees or clients can get insecure for you preferential or biased treatment towards your friend and this may affect your relationship with them. Therefore it is important to not let bringing your friend onboard to make your other associations suffer. You need to find a perfect balance in this regard as well.
There is one more problem with working with friends; which is that they may consider themselves to be special as they are your friend. And this can attract unsolicited advices and nose poking in all your personal and professional matters. Your friend can start to believe him or herself to be extra special, which he or she might actually be, but the uninvited interferences in all your things can get a little too much. So I would ask you to be careful with this and establish their boundaries before you to start working together.