Tech Team Tuesdays: Work With Friends

Sean Coates
Aug 22, 2017 · 2 min read

Everything is awesome, everything is cool when you’re part of a team.


So much of your waking hours are spent at work. Most days, you’ll spend more time at work than with your family. Thus it is critical that you actually like the people you are working with. Ideally, during your time at a job, you will develop strong, lasting friendships. When friends work together, everything operates more efficiently.

Friends will watch each others’ backs. A friend will point out flaws and help you improve. A friend will listen to the things you have to say. These are all actions necessary for a team be more productive working together.

Compare this to working teams which have a “business-only” relationship. These are colder, quieter teams. Everything is strictly business. Stories aren’t shared, jokes aren’t told. Less knowledge is shared. Everyone is looking out for themselves, covering their own ass. In this environment, people aren’t enjoying themselves. They don’t like the people they’re working with. Given a halfway decent opportunity, they’ll leave to join what will be, hopefully, a more pleasant workplace. There’s no way this kind of “team” can be near as productive as a group of friends.

The best thing about working with friends is that these relationships often outlast the job. It’s common for people to follow one another to other companies, and thus you may end up working with your friends again in the future. It happens. People like to hire co-workers they can trust, people they can count on.

So if you find you can’t be friends with the people you’re working with, you probably should consider your options.

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Written by

Occasional posts from @fooyay about software engineering, crypto, finance, and more. https://about.me/fooyay (Content reflects my opinion and not my employer.)

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