Do you think that bosses can have friends at work?  It is a complicated question…and if your answer is no, then I am certainly guilty. I love my team members. Each and every one of them are more than just colleagues to me. But as the boss, fostering close relationships with team members can sometimes lead to firing a friend. 

The irony is that most firings can be avoided. Last year I had to release one of my recruiters and it broke my heart (I cried for a couple of days, actually). I had felt she was becoming burned out because I noticed that she was pulling candidates from our pool for silly reasons. I attempted to open a dialogue with her during one of our one-on-ones but she insisted everything was okay. But then, she went ‘bat-crazy” on the company’s co-founder because he asked her to download a new firewall on her PC.

I had no choice but to let her go. After I released her a couple of my team members revealed that she had been bullying them. Jeepers…she had been negatively impacting the rest of the team. And I had to ask myself…why wouldn’t she open up to me? Why wouldn’t she just tell me what was amiss so that we could work to solve the problem? 

None of us have to be on this journey alone…isn’t that the point of being ‘more than just colleagues’ at work? 

We team up with one of our favorite industry leaders, Linda Arnett, to discuss this exact topic. Everyone trips and falls at work…but these trips and falls don’t have to be deal breakers when folks are properly communicating and holding themselves accountable. Yes - firing a friend can be avoided. Listen in to find out how.