Your office colleague is not your friend

After some years working in different organizations, I have come to realize that many professionals make the mistake of confusing colleagues for friends. Just because professionalism calls for being friendly with everyone, it doesn't mean that everyone is your friend. Colleagues are wonderful people. In fact, it’s very okay to make friends at the work place, but most of us don’t know how to set boundaries as far as colleague-to-colleague relationships are concerned. Going to lunch, exchanging holiday greetings and sharing jokes with colleagues does not qualify them to be your best friends. The truth of the matter is; there are no real friends at work!

It’s very important to realize that, although colleagues tend to have lots of things and interests in common, only collegiality and not friendship exists in the work place. It’s very obvious that the main goal of most people at work is progress. By increasing their visibility and gaining the right exposure, they will be in a position where they become visible to the relevant players in the organization. This will position them to win promotions and other favors with the supervisors. While some colleagues use legitimate and acceptable strategies to achieve such goals, others do it by any means possible; including using you as a stepping stone. For that reason, being friends with such colleagues will only mean more harm than good to you.