In one of my college classes, my professor asked, “Can you be best friends with your boss?” The generation X, Y, and Millennium students responded with Yes. These younger students believed if they were best friends with the boss, they would not be fired, get preferential treatment, and have good working conditions. This may be true, if they have a boss that is unprofessional, discriminatory, and allows favoritism. Since I was the older student in the class, with many years of work experience, I was the only student who responded with an answer of “no.” Of course, the professor asked, “why not?” I responded that a boss needs to keep a professional distance. I have personally seen a boss that was required to terminate their best friend’s employment. That was the end of a close friendship of many years. Watching that happen was gut-wrenching for me and the parties involved. This is a hard concept because we spend more time with colleagues than we do with our own families, and friendships will naturally form. However, being friendly is different from being best friends. Managers can be friendly and have casual conversations, but keeping a professional distance from employees is essential and must be present for several reasons. The supervisor must be able to discipline and/or terminate employees. In order to be taken seriously and gain respect of all employees, the professional distance must be present. Being a good leader requires the manager to not give preferential treatment to any one person. When a manager is best friends with an employee, preferential treatment could be perceived by others, whether real or not. This causes discontent in an organization. A good boss and leader knows how to be a great boss and lead staff by giving them respect, being understanding, and treating employees equally. Supervisors can be friendly; however, bff between supervisors and staff is not appropriate in the workplace.
