Personal Relationships At Work - They can damage your career
Personal Relationships At Work
They can damage your career Summary: Mixing business with pleasure can affect you at work. It’s important to understand the boundaries between your work life and personal relationships. Here are a few tips to help you make the distinction: You spend a lot of your life at work, so it seems only natural that some of your work relationships turn into personal relationships. We all enjoy working with people who we can laugh with, but is it a great idea to mix business with pleasure? Change in the Atmosphere Over the past several years, we have seen a lot of changes in the workplace atmosphere. For example, companies have become a lot less hierarchical. In the old days of pyramid-style management, managers sat at the top, with everyone else below. Today, businesses are all just one big happy (hopefully) family, with an occasional team leader here and there. But, as in any family, there are problems. These days, people spend a lot more time at work and they often bring their personal lives with them. Boss/Subordinate Friendships Your boss is only a few years older than you and things are pretty informal at your office. Sounds like a good mix for disaster if you aren’t aware of what could go wrong. If you and your boss are always together, your co-workers might think you have favored status. All of a sudden, you colleagues are a little less willing to help you finish that project. Think this is a coincidence? Think again. When your boss leaves, and he eventually will, see how far you will be able to go in the organization without the help of your peers. Peer-to-Peer Relationships What could possibly be wrong with having a peer-to-peer relationship? Nothing--until things go sour. Then, all of your dirty laundry is aired out for all your co-workers to see. Inevitably, you and your former friend drag your co-workers into the fray as you go to war. Not only have you just lost a good friend, you have now lost the respect of many of your co-workers who may decide that you have a hard time sustaining relationships. I am not suggesting that you avoid any friendships at work. Just know where to draw the line. Exchanging pleasantries is fine, but you don’t need to go into detail about your date on Saturday night. You never know when things will go south. Keep your conversations professional and you will never have wish you’d kept things to yourself. Dating at Work Yes, it works out for some…but what about the rest of us? When it ends--and more than likely it will--what’s left? Peering around corners to make sure she is not in the hall? Avoiding the company picnic for fear that your ex-girlfriend and co-worker will show up with her new hunky boyfriend? It’s bad enough that you have to worry about seeing her at the grocery store. Now you will feel uncomfortable at work. Is this any way to live? Then there is the possible harassment issue. If it ends badly, will she tell HR that you were harassing her? Think about how a harassment suit will impact your career, then join a local dating service. We all need social contacts, but there are plenty of places outside work to find them. If you want to meet new people and perhaps make new friends: • Join professional associations. This will allow you to meet people with similar career paths who don’t happen to occupy the cubicle next to you. • Take an adult education course. You’ll meet fascination people and purse a non-work-related interest at the same time. It’s a great way to expand your social horizons • Volunteer to help promote a cause dear to your heart. That could mean working on a political campaign or lending your skills to a local non-profit. This is a sure way to meet people whose beliefs match yours.
If you still feel the need to socialize at work, keep your distance. Be pleasant, but don’t feel compelled to be everyone’s confidante. Share a little information about yourself but don’t tell your whole story. This is the real world, remember, not an episode of Ally McBeal.
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