Is It Possible To Build A Friendship With Your Boss

Even if you decide that you can build a friendship with your boss, there will be times when the professional relationship is strained because of the personal relationship, and vice versa. As much as you try to compartmentalize different aspects of your friendship, issues at the office and at home are bound to get in the way. For example, if you have to be reprimanded for a mistake, will you want to go to the movies afterward?

Furthermore, even if you aren't given a few passes because you're the boss's friend, your coworkers might be able to figure out your relationship. Jealousy is common in the office, especially when you work closely with your colleagues, and allegations of favoritism are sure to arise after a while. This can strain your relationships with your colleagues and cause productivity to suffer.

However, it certainly is possible for two mature adults to maintain a friendship despite the fact that one outranks the other at work. It requires a mutual agreement to keep professional and personal lives completely separate and to maintain a professional demeanor at work. You can't sit for hours in your boss's office, discussing the latest baseball game, while your colleagues are hard at work at their desks.

Keep a positive attitude

This goes without saying; there is power and pay back in being positive! It doesn’t take much effort to be kind and it is harmless to be positive. You can start by doing a small favour for busy colleagues; the plan is to plant small, relevant seeds of kindness and positivity around your workplace. Your positive attitude costs nothing. Positivity in the way you behave, contribute to initiatives and undertake your daily work should speak for itself. As a positive staff, working with someone like you will make tasks and relationships seem much less difficult, and a positive morale usually does great things for teamwork, bosses and allow for prosperity in the business. Being one of the few that can find the positive in every situation could help single you out as a talented employee and command your boss’s respect in that you are one of the ones to always remember when it is time for promotion.

Put in real effort

Those that do more than what is required or needed generally stand a better chance of being noticed by their bosses. Go the extra mile. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is the ‘extra’. This fact applies everywhere. Real effort will usually reward you because the boss knows you put in the extra time work and really care about your job. It is a known fact that bosses can usually tell when a job has been done with an above-average dedication.

Network, Network, Network

It is easy to just do the busy work and not the work that adds value or connect you to other departments or that are inter-departmental. Try to volunteer to take the tasks no one else wants to take on. This will make your boss realise your willingness to work with others and your ability to network and will most likely appreciate it. Getting to know and respect managers in other departments is a good idea so that you have someone to speak for you other than just your boss. Positive feedback will be given to your boss so it is important that you make an effort to do a good job within or outside your department. If your boss should move on, then someone else or other managers in management knows the quality of the work that you do.

We don't live in a perfect world, and there will be times when you can't conceivably maintain a friendship with your boss. Perhaps your colleagues are out of sorts, or maybe you aren't capable of keeping your professional relationship separate from your personal one. Regardless of the reasons, you do have options.

For example, if you work for a large company, you can keep your friendship with your boss as well as your job by requesting a transfer. As soon as you are out from underneath your boss's authority, no one will have any reason to question your relationship. Plus, friendships are often easier to maintain when you don't have to worry about the pressures of work, so you might be able to keep a friend this way.

If you aren't able to transfer, however, it might be best to start looking for a new job when your friendship with your boss can no longer be sustained. There might be a better opportunity waiting outside the walls of your current office, and you won't know until you give it a shot. Just don't resort to this measure until you've exhausted all other remedies.

When your boss wants to complain, he complains to his spouse. So being one of the few people that your boss’ spouse knows, and likes, can help you a ton, especially if the complaint is about you.

You’d be surprised how powerful of an ally his spouse can be when she is on your side, and what a bitter enemy she can be when she isn’t. Any first-person contact is meaningful, whether it’s a 10-minute conversation at the holiday party or an after-work meeting for dinner and drinks. Make sure you create an alliance with the real decision maker.