Co-Workers as Friends
Once, long ago, when I was a young public health graduate student, a professor warned me against getting too friendly with one of the administrative staff. Back then, I figured it didn’t much matter because it wasn’t as if I had any power over her. I was just a lowly grad student! But, the following year, I did gain more responsibility and it started getting a little awkward.
Kim at Emergiblog writes more about working relationships in the emergency room. She asks:
- How close should you get to your co-workers?
- How much of your personal life should you discuss with the people you work with?
- At what point does information about yourself become too much information?
- Should you actually be friends with the people you work with?
I tend to be a blabber mouth and probably share too much. But considering how much time we spend with our co-workers, it’s hard being aloof all the time and I don’t think it would endear us to anyone if we were thought of as being cold.
Kim’s got a practical take on the whole situation. How do you behave at work?
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I have wrestled with this topic serveral times. It is hard to strike a balance between professionalism and friendship. Most people cannot handle that situation at all. When I started my professional career I had a very hard time with it, to the point that I decided to not consider coworkers friends… but then little by little those are the people that you spend must of your time with so relationships develop.