Want to Hire Your Friend?

Being a close friend of boss definitely might cause bad consequences. This is not my story, one of my friends told it to me. I won't mention any names, but I am stories like this must be in the Internet, so anybody with the same problems would know they are not alone. So, here is what I've  been told.

I've been working in my company for few years; now I am project manager. It happened that my friend Nelly has been unemployed for a while, and since the suitable vacancy opened at our company, I suggested her to apply for a job. It was almost a year ago. She considered that as a good idea, sent her CV, interviewed for few times. All went well, and she was hired.

Nelly worked in another department for seven months, and we rarely collaborated on business. Though, we often met each other, had lunch together. It was a perfect state of things: my friend was employed, she was always somewhere around. Few months ago she was transferred to my department, under my direction. I was confused, because it’s hard to mix up work and friendship. But the things didn’t go bad. They went just awful. 

Few weeks of work as a team passed, and I understood that Nelly evades pursuance of her duties. She reported about her progress, but reports mismatched the facts. I talked to her, off the record. Nelly seemed to be ashamed, she promised to improve. Anyway, nothing changed. I talked to her again; everything repeated, so I didn’t have another choice than to reprimand her. What happened then once and for all deranged me. Nelly burst into my office and began to cry. She told me about her problems in family, quarrels with her husband. She swore that she would do her job. Of course, she broke her promise again.

This situation has been dragging on for two months. In fact, I do most of her job. I would have already fire any other worker, but Nelly is my friend, at least was my friend before. I don’t really believe in her problems in family, but who knows, may she really hits the bad patch. How can I make her life even worse? I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to be naive, but I don’t want also to ruin this friendship. Though, seems like it is already ruined…

So, here is one of the hundreds of stories about hiring your friend or being your friend's boss. If you want to share your story too, just send it to me