How much do you personally disagree or agree with the heuristic/mentality "work and friends should be separate"?

Posted by gintokireddit@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 153 comments

I find it absurd as a rule, considering the number of people who do meet up with work colleagues as friends. I've worked in one business where the managers were literally close friends from their teens to their 40s and beyond. I have an uncle in business with his friend for 10+ years. Another uncle whose two closest friends for 15+ years (so much so that they purposely bought houses in the same housing area) are from his old workplace department. I've worked in one place where a couple of 50-ish women who seemed to not get on well at work had been friends meeting up outside of work for years. I've had two 30s women in the last 6 months say all their friends made post-education are from work, In one case they said it's because their work aligns with their values (definitely applies in both cases). In the other case they said they wouldn't even know how to make friends elsewhere. Compulsory friends? No. But not a no-go either. Some level of professional boundaries between friends while at work often make sense too, for the sake of getting work done and not making others feel excluded (depends on how you act as friends. Some won't need to tone it down much). Even if you fall out, I doubt most people are going to start trying to drag your name through the mud.