Are you friends with your boss / employees?

[JetBlast]

Everyone is on a first-name basis - it is kind of nice being able to call your North American manager by his first name.

 

[Davidko19]

Originally Posted by CDFS

And yet you refuse to do that with yourself.

well played Never had anyone work for me. Never been close to my bosses. professional, definetly. Friendly, you bet. Go out for drinks? Thats about the limit. Mainly, if they knew the real me - away from the quite desk jockey, id probably be fired.

 

[imageWIS]

At my old job we called everyone by their first names.

 

[Mr Herbert]

it must be a cultural difference but i havent called someone by the surname since i finished school

then again, if you ever called someone sir here they would look at your strangely and ask you to desist

 

[BP348]

Originally Posted by Mr Herbert

it must be a cultural difference but i havent called someone by the surname since i finished school

then again, if you ever called someone sir here they would look at your strangely and ask you to desist

Where are you located? I don't think I've ever had a job outside of the military where I didn't call everyone by their first name.

My current office is kind of different. I live 70 miles away from the office just like everyone else, office is in a small town, but 97% of the others live 70 miles in the oppsite direction so I would say I almost never see anyone from my work outside of auctally being at work.

 

[forsbergacct2000]

Originally Posted by Connemara

Yeah, I would say friendly. There are a lot of smaller offices (3-5 people) within my building, so sometimes there will be an e-mail blast announcing a happy hour or group lunch in a conference room. The staff likes to hang out with each other and the vast majority of them are fairly young, intelligent and fun.

Friendly with my boss but I still treat her with respect and all that. None of the first-name-basis stuff.

None of that first-name basis stuff? Maybe in 1890

 

[Connemara]

Well, she's a public official and thus has a title. So we just use that. I don't think she'd get mad if I called her by her first name. But I don't do it.

 

[JohnsNotHere]

Don't be this guy:

 

[Blackhood]

I went out and played ice hockey with my co-workers and bosses last night.


Good fun, but now I ache all over!

 

[visionology]

Where I am everyone is friendly but at the end of the day lets be honest, everyone just wants to get the hell out from a long day and go home. There is one girl however who I'd like to be "friends" with.

 

[cimabue]

I only hire friends.

But I fire them if they ask me to help them move.

 

[bigbris1]

Originally Posted by Mr Herbert

How friendly are you with your boss and/or your direct reports?

do you have lunch with them, drinks at the pub on a friday etc or do you keep your distance?

No. To avoid this:

Originally Posted by Mr Herbert

ever had problems with a poorly performing report who you are friends with (or a serious professional disagreement with a boss you are friends with)?

 

[Mr. Moo]

We all hang out fairly regularly during off work hours.

 

[globetrotter]

sort of in between - I am very friendly with my boss. we see each "Socially" a half dozen times a year, but they are work related. she has never invited me to her house, I have never invited her to mine. we have had a dinner together, with the other people of my rank and our spouces, a few times, but not something like I had my friends over for a bar-b-que and invited my boss as well.

I have traveled with her several times, which means, basically, eating every meal with her for a couple of weeks, and we get along well.

pretty much the same thing with my reports - I've been to dinner at their houses, though, I've met their famiilies and taken their families to dinner, bought their kids and wives presents (which I expense). we are friendly, but not real friends.

I call my boss by her first name (a lot of people I work with call her by a nickname, I find it pretty difficlut) my reports call me "boss". I didn't ask them to, but they fell into the habbit.

 

[Joffrey]

Friendly, not friends with anyone I work directly with. I like it that way.