Re:Ask HN: Are you friends with your manager?
by yibg on Friday September 04, 2020 @05:14PM
(#24378953)
I'm the same way. I'm friends with previous managers and reports but I try to keep current ones professional. Even if there are no playing favorites I want to avoid any perception of playing favorites for myself, my reports and my managers.
Re:Ask HN: Are you friends with your manager?
by tracker1 on Friday September 04, 2020 @04:49PM
(#24378748)
Not to sound glib, but this is part of what LinkedIn and even Facebook to a lesser degree is for. I keep LinkedIn to professional relationships and Facebook is mostly family and casual relationships (old HS friends etc).
I am friends with prior managers, but not anyone currently in management tree above/below me. I am friends with one coworker currently.
Re:Ask HN: Are you friends with your manager?
by incomplete on Friday September 04, 2020 @05:34PM
(#24379116)
as a manager, i have this exact rapport w/my small team: we're all super friendly, but definitely not friends. i'd invite them all to a BBQ at my place in a heartbeat!
outside of my current job, i'm still friends w/some old managers and reports... we're all geographically distributed so it's hard to keep in touch w/everyone. :)
For current, active working relationships? Nope. We keep that professional distance. Once we no longer work together, I'm open to closer relationships with them. It usually doesn't happen, though.
The truth of the matter is that the thing most of us have in common with one another is that we work together, and once that's no longer true, there's just not that much more to the relationship, and so we inevitably drift apart.