Office Colleagues should be 9 to 5 Friends

 Why Office Colleagues should only be 9 to 5 Friends

Rashi Joshi

Man is a social animal. We meet people, talk to them and they become acquaintances, we talk to them a little more and they become friends, a couple of beers and they become 

greatest pals.

The colleagues at work might be friendly and jovial, but that doesn’t guarantee a sound friendship for life. I’m not asking you to stop socializing at the work place, but keep these friendships limited till your office hours, i.e.9AM to 5PM. One should not make a mistake of over estimating the friendship of your colleague at work. There are many things you guys might have in common like having the same boss, hating the boss equally and sharing the same level of intense hatred for the boss’s pet, but this shouldn’t be a reason for you to see him/her as your BFF(best friend forever), for the under mentioned reasons:

Similar urges

Your colleague at work is the same as you. Whether it be an urge for recognition in front of the boss, for bonuses, for raise, for promotions and the list is endless. Now, just because both of you are friends (with or without benefits), it doesn’t change your opinion towards your work and the aforementioned urges. You would still want the raise, promotion and bonus. Problems arise in case of peers. Subordinates have an innate ability to refrain you from moving ahead, no matter how many times you hang around after office.

Creates room for rumors

When you become friends with a colleague at work, there’s every possibility that you introduce him to your personal life also. Don’t be in haste in revealing your personal issues and plans in front of your office mate. If things go wrong between you two, there will be a huge whirlpool of raving rumors about what you said about the boss, the girls you had a crush on, and all your dirty linens will be washed in public.

Spoils your personal life

We talk to our friends about common interests, and when a colleague becomes a friend, all you will end up talking about will be the tyranny of your boss, the girls at the office, that irritating account keeping and everything relating to office. This will harm your work-life balance. You will end up talking all about office in the office, and now even outside the office. There will be little space left in your life when you devote time to your interests, your acquaintances, your family. Most likely your relationships will suffer too, as which girl can stand her guy talking office-office all the times, like her nagging was not enough.

Opinionated and coterie-ish

We live in a century where it is very unlikely of one’s opinion to be his own. Someone, somewhere, inspires you in liking the other colleague, hating the boss and ignoring that fellow in the IT Department. The colleague-friend of yours shall render his opinion to you. Such opinion is not only to be appreciated by you, but is also to be accepted and implied on. You have to hate them or like them, as much as your friend does. You lose individuality, and are noticed by the leader of the coterie only. If you are over friendly with a bad guy at office, you are bad too, and vice versa.

Your 'real' friends should get more priority

When you are in a position to work and earn, you have crossed decades of school, college, gym, guitar classes, and Facebook friendships. What about your friends from that era? You can’t outrightly ignore them now, since you found bunch of mates you could nag all day long with. Your mates at work might be good listeners and talkers, but when it comes to advises for life, your old time friends are the best people to talk to. Don’t even try mingling your colleagues and other friends, as no other friends would love to talk about your boss, or hot girls at your office, whom they don’t even get to see. (Work Life, MensXP.com)