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Working under once friend now a boss is no mean task, until you get professional about the changed equation.
Life is cruel! Turns out that the fellow in the next cubicle with whom you shared your dabba and the lunch room gossip has been awarded a promotion. What's more, he will be heading the team he was a member of, and that includes you!
Actress Natassha learnt it the hard way following her much publicised tiff with that notorious taskmaster Ektaa Kapoor.
Ektaa had shown her "best friend" the door after Natassha refused to work on promos for her serials on account of fatigue resulting from a 20-hour shooting schedule for a film.
So do the fragile dynamics of friendship change for the worse, once the friend dons the mantle of the boss?
Smriti Bajpai, officer (Operations) with a private bank can offer experiences from the opposite side of the desk. She relates, "My current immediate boss was actually someone who had trained with me in the company. So when ...
he became the teamleader, I was naturally more than a little apprehensive.
As a friend we shared so much, but as a boss my equation with him seemed to have changed. In the beginning I would take umbrage even when he pointed out the slightest mistakes. For instance, once there was a mistake made by me in the loan approval procedure.
My boss showed it to me, adding the problems that could have arisen. And instead of offering a suitable explanation, I started crying! But because he was a friend too, he understood my insecurities and tried to solve them. I admit I felt much better after this episode."
According to Jayant Krishna, regional manager with a software solutions firm, the equations needn't necessarily alter, provided the concept of expectation management is applied to the situation.
Krishna, who says that he has often faced a situation where he was supposed to head his colleagues, explains, "It's been more than half a dozen times when I was awarded the position of a senior amongst colleagues.
Once to my discomfiture I noticed that a colleague, slightly senior to me in age, who was also...
a friend, was actually depressed following my promotion. He found that he was now supposed to report to me.
I took him to a separate room in the office, (calling him to my room might have sent a wrong signal that I was trying to boss over him) and explained that in the real world such things will happen, and he had to accept them.
I added that I would not allow our work to hamper our personal friendship." Krishna adds that having a discussion with a friend who will be working under you, in the beginning itself, to clarify and draw a line between personal and professional relationships, helps in avoiding confusion.
Saurabh Pathak, branch manager with a private bank is in complete agreement with Krishna. He points out, "In the corporate world such things are bound to happen.
Which is why I keep on telling my juniors to strictly separate their personal and professional lives. For they never know who might end up being their boss, or vice versa."
Professional dynamics aside, what happens when friends begin to take advantage of their friends in "high places"? "This is likely to happen too," laughs Krishna, "I remember this person I was on friendly terms with, who went about boasting to clients how he 'knew me very well'!
The moment this news came to me, I had a very straight talk with the person concerned about how I resented such references. And luckily he got the message".
Ties that bind friends need to be loosened in the professional world, what say?
Life is cruel! Turns out that the fellow in the next cubicle with whom you shared your dabba and the lunch room gossip has been awarded a promotion. What's more, he will be heading the team he was a member of, and that includes you!
Actress Natassha learnt it the hard way following her much publicised tiff with that notorious taskmaster Ektaa Kapoor.
Ektaa had shown her "best friend" the door after Natassha refused to work on promos for her serials on account of fatigue resulting from a 20-hour shooting schedule for a film.
So do the fragile dynamics of friendship change for the worse, once the friend dons the mantle of the boss?
Smriti Bajpai, officer (Operations) with a private bank can offer experiences from the opposite side of the desk. She relates, "My current immediate boss was actually someone who had trained with me in the company. So when ...
he became the teamleader, I was naturally more than a little apprehensive.
As a friend we shared so much, but as a boss my equation with him seemed to have changed. In the beginning I would take umbrage even when he pointed out the slightest mistakes. For instance, once there was a mistake made by me in the loan approval procedure.
My boss showed it to me, adding the problems that could have arisen. And instead of offering a suitable explanation, I started crying! But because he was a friend too, he understood my insecurities and tried to solve them. I admit I felt much better after this episode."
According to Jayant Krishna, regional manager with a software solutions firm, the equations needn't necessarily alter, provided the concept of expectation management is applied to the situation.
Krishna, who says that he has often faced a situation where he was supposed to head his colleagues, explains, "It's been more than half a dozen times when I was awarded the position of a senior amongst colleagues.
Once to my discomfiture I noticed that a colleague, slightly senior to me in age, who was also...
a friend, was actually depressed following my promotion. He found that he was now supposed to report to me.
I took him to a separate room in the office, (calling him to my room might have sent a wrong signal that I was trying to boss over him) and explained that in the real world such things will happen, and he had to accept them.
I added that I would not allow our work to hamper our personal friendship." Krishna adds that having a discussion with a friend who will be working under you, in the beginning itself, to clarify and draw a line between personal and professional relationships, helps in avoiding confusion.
Saurabh Pathak, branch manager with a private bank is in complete agreement with Krishna. He points out, "In the corporate world such things are bound to happen.
Which is why I keep on telling my juniors to strictly separate their personal and professional lives. For they never know who might end up being their boss, or vice versa."
Professional dynamics aside, what happens when friends begin to take advantage of their friends in "high places"? "This is likely to happen too," laughs Krishna, "I remember this person I was on friendly terms with, who went about boasting to clients how he 'knew me very well'!
The moment this news came to me, I had a very straight talk with the person concerned about how I resented such references. And luckily he got the message".
Ties that bind friends need to be loosened in the professional world, what say?
Cricket
