Having a work bestie can make long days fly by and make them a lot more fun, but work friendships don’t follow the same rules as regular ones. You have to find the right balance of being a coworker and being a friend, but being professional has to come first. That means setting boundaries and if your work BFF blows past those, that friendship may no longer be healthy. Even worse? It could be toxic for your career and you.
These are the red flags to watch out for with work friendships:
● Your work friend expects you to take their side all the time - A good friend understands that you can’t show bias to one colleague, but a toxic friend may expect you to always side with them in disputes or share all inside information you hear with them and feel hurt if you don’t. Patricia Sias, a researcher at the University of Arizona who studies workplace friendships, says conflicting expectations is one of the five top ways work friendships fall apart.
● You’re afraid your job will be in jeopardy if you end the friendship - If you’re scared of getting on your work friend’s bad side because you’ve seen how they treat their work enemies, that’s a sign the friendship is toxic. Maintaining a friendship out of fear isn’t healthy for you or your career.
● Your work friend betrays your trust - Feel like you always have to watch your back around your work friend? That’s a red flag, too. Feeling betrayed is another top reason work friendships fail, according to Sias’ research.
● You get rude or gossipy with this friend and you’re getting a bad reputation - Kindness is contagious, but bad vibes are, too and research shows that being around work bullies makes us more likely to also be mean. And if you’re doing or saying things with your work friend that you wouldn’t do on your own, that’s a sign your friendship isn’t healthy.
● You feel more ambivalence than excitement to hang out with them - Trust your gut on this one. If the thought of going to happy hour or lunch with this person makes you nervous or anxious rather than excited, that’s a red flag that something is off.
Source: Huff Post