How would you describe the line between work friends and actual friends? How do you know when one becomes the other?

8 comments

1. When you begin hanging out outside of work. Or even calling or texting each other outside of work and it’s not work related. Or you no longer work together and still remain close. I’m 40 and the majority of my friends are people I used to work with. Most of them are 20+ yr friendships and we haven’t worked together in over a decade.

2. I think when you socialise outside of work or socialise after you stopped working together.

3. I’d only recommend making work friends into actual friends when you don’t work together anymore. I’ve seen this blow up way tooo many times. The line is when you hang out outside of work

4. For me, actual friends means you hang out outside of work. And not exclusively work-adjacent things like office happy hours, or going to the gym together right before or after work. I’m talking actual hangouts on evenings and weekends, meeting each other’s partners, stuff like that. And when one of you leaves the job, the friendship continues.

5. Socializing regularly outside of work and not only talking about work when you’re out together

6. When we socialise even on weekends… (and not just after work).

   I have a group of very close work friends (who are/became friends).. we were literally spending everyday together, met each others’ spouses/partners.. and would holiday together as well.

7. When I want to actually hang out with them outside of work, and those encounters are fun, then they are a friend friend, not just a work friend.

8. I’ll give an example: when someone I had worked with opened up to me about being non-binary