One of the difficulties supervisors face at work is managing relationships with friends after a promotion. Sometimes when a friend receives a promotion, those left behind feel resentment. In other cases, friends expect their old pal to bestow them with special favors. Handling friendships in your new role as supervisor is tricky, so you must use a deft touch in these relationships.
Instructions
1. Take the initiative and ask your friend to lunch. You friend might feel awkward about this new shift in power. Deal directly with the change in roles in a relaxed environment.
2. Avert charges of favoritism by extending the same courtesies to your other subordinates as you extend to your friends at work. If you allow your friend to leave work early once a week to pick up a child from daycare, make it a policy to extend flextime to others in the department.
3. Compare your subordinate's performance with company performance standards, not with other subordinates. If you tell your friend he does a better job than his cube mate, this tidbit may become water cooler gossip.
4. Keep the confidences your subordinates share with you, no matter your personal relationship with them. If a subordinate reveals personal troubles that necessitate a few days off, keep this revelation private. Sharing confidences with other friends you supervise is unethical.
5. Be firm when necessary. As you adjust to your supervisory role, some subordinates you've been friendly with may test you. Remain calm and firm but pleasant when faced with angry, lazy or whiny subordinates.
6. Allow subordinates privacy to vent or commiserate with one another. If you joined your friends in the break room for lunch daily, try dropping in occasionally instead. Pretending that nothing has changed by inserting yourself among your subordinates every day breeds resentment.
