4 reasons you NEED to have co-workers as close friends

Recently, there was a Ragan.com article that said you shouldn’t make friends with people you work with.

Ummm—what?!

I hadn’t even gotten past the headline, and I was already ticked off. I emailed one of my friends and asked her if she thought I should write a rebuttal to this nonsense.

My friend just happens to be my editor. Of course she said yes.

Some of my greatest friendships started at work. It’s hard to imagine not working with people I didn’t want to be friends with. I’m convinced that having close office friends not only benefits your life inside the cubicle garden, but outside it, too.

Here’s why:

Your other friendships will improve

Do you have friends in your “real” life who are always complaining about the day-to-day minutiae of their office life? Whenever you see them, they can’t wait to tell you about Kelly’s new haircut, a seemingly hilarious office email chain, or what their CEO ate for breakfast. These people have no office friends. If they did have friends at work, they could spare you all the blah details of their 9-to-5.

Here’s the thing: Nobody really cares about your office or your co-workers.