Two of my friends have a history as manager/employee of each other. At some point, the manager had to fire the employee, for valid reasons. I can understand both of their perspectives, and I still get along with each of them individually, but the employee has said things to me like “I don’t understand how you can be friends with them.”
How do I navigate being in the middle like that? Of course I care about my friend and it sucks that they got fired, but it’s hard to dislike the manager for doing it because they did what they felt they had to for the well-being of their team.