Professional Colleagues or College Friends?

What happens to an organization where those working for it act like college friends and not professional colleagues?

The first question you may want to ask would be - what's the difference?

Heck, there is a lot of difference. In fact, there are only differences.

Someone who is a professional will generally stay away from the following:
  • Go below a a certain level of decorum even if they meet the colleagues outside office
  • Interact in a manner which is too informal and using unpolished language
  • Watch funny videos with others in the office
  • Crack certain types of jokes with others
  • Spend the entire working day (almost) in small talk with others
  • Share too many personal and trivial details with others
  • Get drunk in office parties and talk non-sense with one another
  • Go for lunch with the same set of people everyday
  • Write negative and toxic emails
  • Reach late to meetings
  • Sit over emails for a long time
  • Delay response to emails received from others
  • Stay quiet on meeting invites received from others (no response)
  • Play behind-the-back games
  • Promote stooges and form coterie
  • Play favorites and carry bias
  • Side with loyalists and long time stooges
College friends, on the other hand, will generally indulge in the above.

This becomes extremely dangerous if it happens in case of long-time loyalists in an organization who also happen to be a part of the management committee and run the organization's affairs.

College friends end up shaping the culture in the organization in such a manner that the general atmosphere becomes more like working for a "family" than a company!

Progressive, growth-oriented organizations should firmly believe in and establish a culture which allows its employees to act as professional colleagues rather than college friends.

Colleagues should share camaraderie and have good working relations.

However, a clear line has to be drawn so that the relations between professional colleagues does not degenerate into college friends. 

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