Friends with colleagues

While discussing the corrective steps for a friend's project, I noticed a shade of sorrow on his face. The schedule of the project was a long one, and they were just warming up. So I didn't understand the cause for concern. Your planning may go wrong, and that is the reason for a retrospective. I continued to cheer him up, and then he confessed. "I am too friendly with the team. I have entangled my professional and personal life. Now, I am suffering".

On hearing this, I felt more sorrowful than my friend. There aren't any rules in any book saying you can't be friends with your colleagues. I have a lot of friends from the workplace.  There are cases of people leaving the organization because it has become big and there is no personal touch anymore. I admonished my friend. "You are harsh to yourself." Developing friendships at work helps to reduce stress at the workplace. That is my stand in summary.

While you ponder my point, here is the other side of the problem. Yesterday, I was trying to reach a colleague. After sending a couple of texts and a few calls later, I was not sure what to do. As there was a fire breathing dragon who was chasing me, I needed the help of this person to counter the danger. In my defense, I had used all my powerful spells without any success.  It was Friday evening. All this time, I was trying to reach his work phone. This fact dawned on me Saturday morning.  So what did I do? I messaged him on Facebook. An hour later, he was attending an important meeting.

As for me, I am not sure if any of my colleagues are going to send me invites over Facebook to connect. Neither am I sure about their joy in accepting my invites.  I might have crossed to the dark side entirely. But that is me. As the wise, there is a good side and a bad side for anything.

Picture Courtesy: tomvdh1