Working with friends: can it be done?

[sarahj]

At work I know several people from my high school - we didn't know each other when actually studying there, but now we are acquaintances. I have become very good friends with a few people, however since we met at work, we have developed a friendship that involves giving good customer service and doing random tasks while finding a chance for a small chat each shift. (Side note: we never chat while serving customers, as we all hate when other cashiers do that to us.)

Anyway, a good friend of mine and all-around nice guy has asked me if my store is hiring. I know he would do the job well and not fool around, and he has a good sense of humour so he'd get along well with everyone. One of the younger supervisors told me I can help him get hired by putting in a good word to the head supervisors. I'd really like to do this for him as he is in a similar situation to me at my old job (crap hours, awful co-workers who barely work).

But first I want to know if anyone here has ever helped a friend get hired or worked with a friend. I'm confident we could act professionally (ie keep the dirty jokes out of the workplace) but then again, I think a lot of stuff. Advice and stories, please!

[Fenrus]

Honestly, if you think he'll do a good job, put in a good word, but let him get the job of his own merit. If you don't do anything, it might hurt the friendship. I got a friend an application for my job, then when he couldn't pass the qualifying test, he took it out on me...

But like you say, he's a nice guy who's trying to get out of a bad situation, so I say go for it. Worst case scenario, he gets fired from your company, doesn't look bad on you.

[Seshat]

I've worked with friends and family in a variety of configurations. Worked with my parents and brother in a family business, worked with my father-in-law at his employer, worked with my husband in a few tech-geek places, worked with friends at tech-geek places, been hired by friends.


Working with my parents and brother would have gone much better if we'd all realised I was sick, not lazy. As none of us did (including me), things were said that still hurt today. I'm not going to go into it: I figure you can all work it out.

I worked with my father-in-law after I was diagnosed. He was actually my boss, and he knew my limits and the signs of overload better than I did. He hired me for a job that was within my abilities, didn't expect more from me than I could do.

I think the lesson to take from both of those situations is not restricted to disability: expect the possible and the feasible, given the person's abilities, skills and personality. Otherwise you'll overstrain the relationship.

That said, I've learned two other key things about working with friends and family. It's even more important to pull your share of the weight when you're working with friends or family than when they're 'just' co-workers. Sure, you can discuss who hates which jobs and who doesn't mind which jobs, so that you pull your share in jobs you don't mind so much: but you can't slack off and let other people do your share without it affecting the outside-work relationship. You also have to keep a close eye on being fair about trading days off, picking up slack for your friend when they're sick (and they should pick up for you when you are), and all those other little things that make the difference between a good working relationship and a bad one.

The other key thing is this: leave work at work. It can be very easy and very tempting to discuss a work problem while you're hanging out with your co-worker/friend, but that can just end up with you effectively having a 24-hour workday. And that doesn't do anyone any good. (Mind you, that's probably more likely to happen in something like programming than retail. )

[wagegoth]

I think it's easier if you don't work together, that is, you don't work in the same area or in the same department. You can visit on breaks or after work, but that way you can't be accused of influencing each other's behavior while at work.

[Enigma]

It really just depends on the people. You say you know that you both can handle the job responsibly and professionaly, so whats the problem? I agree with leaving work at work, and possibly working in different areas- simply because you can only spend so much time with some people before it starts to wear on your nerves.

Keep in mind you may be faced with situations you might not expect, I once helped a very, very good friend get a job with me, and found she thought she could sit around while I was on break, and not carry her share of the work. It's hard bridging 'real life' into 'work friends'.

But, I believe as long as you both are mature, hardworking people, it could be fun working together!

[powerboy]

From my experience. Working for friends, will screw you some how.

[Andara Bledin]

The other key thing is this: leave work at work. It can be very easy and very tempting to discuss a work problem while you're hanging out with your co-worker/friend, but that can just end up with you effectively having a 24-hour workday. And that doesn't do anyone any good. (Mind you, that's probably more likely to happen in something like programming than retail. )

Also, don't forget to leave personal business at home.

Whether or not it works out will be entirely dependent on the people involved.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The only real difference being that when it doesn't, it sometimes comes back on the personal relationship as well.

And, also, it sometimes works out in the workplace, but the personal relationship suffers some problem, and that can be dragged into the workplace.

^-.-^

[Evil Queen]

All I can say is it has helped me. Twice. I adore working with friends and developing friendships at work. It makes the work day so much easier to cope with.

I have some friends that I know I would never, ever, work with and some that I would kill to work with. It all depends on the friend.

[Gurndigarn]

It really comes down to how mature both of you are, and how much of a work ethic both of you have. You say you were in school together: were you the type who made comments to each other during class? Then hell, no, don't do it!

Did you finish your work before beginning to gab during free times? Then yeah, it should work.

[customersruinmylife]

Hmmm a toughie. I have had very mixed experience working with friends. One friend got a job, decided he didn't like it and stopped showing up. Guess who got it in the neck when he didn't turn up for a shift? He wasn't in my good books for a long time.

But then again, I met my best friend at work, but he had to leave for reasons I've posted on here before (look on off topic)

At the moment, I LIVE with people I work with, but I am going to have to move out soon. Now I have been made manager, it is getting too difficult being their boss, their friend and their roomate. Unfortunately I am contracted until August.

[rerant]

When I started working at where I am now, a friend whom I met at my previous job and became a very close friend, started working there as well.
Honestly, I couldn't imagine not working with friends.
When she started I put in a good word for her with my managers and everything has worked out great.
However, my manager always tells us that she should never put us at registers that are close together, since we'll chat up a storm.
We've also been known to call each other's registers on occasion when we're at lanes that are nowhere near one another, but it's never gotten in the way of our work, and the conversation always stops without so much as a "hold on" when we have to speak to customers.

Also, since a lot of people are of the same relative age at my work, a lot of us end up hanging out together outside of work anyway. Things like this make work more pleasant and easy to put up with.

If I didn't have friends at work I'd lose my mind, so I think if you know your friend would be good for the position you should set it up.

[TNT]

Where I work, we get bonuses for referring friends and family for jobs.

[Jade Panurple]

If I can work in the situation I am in, you can definetely work with your friend.

I am currently working with my friend I, and have been for almost six months. Just a week ago, he was my Husband. We decided to break it off and just be friends and roommates, because that is what we are better at. We are both immensely happy. Our bosses obviously know everything, and they are being super supportive, let us work shifts together if he needs more training. It also helps that we have proven to them that when we are at work, we are nothing more than coworkers. At work, we chat, but personal life stays just as personal as it should be.

Good luck!

[Shangri-laschild]

I work with a good friend of mine. She and I work together and she hangs out in the office a lot when I'm working. We also hang out outside of work. There were a couple of times during training where things were a bit tight but it's fine now. I have to say overall it's a good expirience. There is a friend that I lost because of stuff that happend at work, but the thing is, work just helped me realize that she was a bitch quicker than just hanging out with her would have.

If your friend knows when the be serious and can deal with it if there are times you have to tell them what to do or be good about it if they have to tell you what to do then it should be fine.

[CaroPhoenix]

I used to work with a person I've known since high school. Actually, I got 2 jobs through her. First job, I didn't work with her, 2nd job, she was my boss. We had a blast! I definitely would work more with her.