# Can senior leaders make friends at work? | Irrational Exuberance

<https://lethain.com/posts/2021/work-friends/>

- Host: [lethain.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/lethain.com/)
- Saved: June 10, 2021 (2021-06-10T11:41:08Z)
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## What Jamie wrote

I can definitely relate to the central theme of this article.

> I’ve also found that tenured managers eventually run into perspective-altering events at work that make them cautious about developing work friendships. A few from my own experience: an acquaintance who interviewed with us, wasn’t given an offer, and took their life shortly thereafter; a friend who I managed, started giving performance feedback, a brief punctuation when they threw their resignation paper in my face, and never speaking again; hiring your mentor, them struggling, giving them feedback, and them abruptly disengaging from you; ending up managing a former peer who takes it poorly. Each of these taught me a bit about the obstacles that work friendships face where other friendships generally wouldn’t.

Everyone can take their own path. But beware that things may not work out well.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT190: Weekly Thing #190 / WWDC, Passport, Roll](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/190/), Notable

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## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://lethain.com/posts/2021/work-friends/