Hiring a personal friend in a company - advisable or not? Your thoughts?

Hello 1

Hypothetical question:

Is it ever a good idea as a manager of a company to hire a personal friend? If for example, other employees in the company are aware of your personal friendship?

What would be the biggest reason again s't hiring a personal friend?

Just looking for some viewpoints?

TallGlass

No

Peanut2011

If the person is good fit for the role and as long as you can keep your friendship for outside work, I see no issue.

I've done it before, but I can separate personal and professional relationships so they are treated like everyone else.

Just make sure they understand and can deal with that.

silent_spark

I would have no issue with either hiring a friend, or working somewhere where my employer hired a friend. If you’re hiring a friend, you’re doing it because they’re capable and you know they can get the job done. If it’s not a private company, the relationship should obviously be disclosed to the selection panel, but other than that, work away.

Hello 1

Has anyone ever experienced a friend of management being abusive to their co workers, and felt they could literally get away with anything, just because they are a friend of management?

messrs

Hello 1 wrote: »

Has anyone ever experienced a friend of management being abusive to their co workers, and felt they could literally get away with anything, just because they are a friend of management?

In a previous job i worked in there was a IT department with a team of 6 people, one guy in particular became good friends with the manager of the dept, they werent friends prior to working in the company but became quiet close while working there, would hang out together in evenings after work, weekends ect, started going on holidays together, so then this guy thought he could get away with more , started slacking off, not working as hard, he was looking after the helpdesk and started giving all the ****ty requests to the other guys and wouldnt do any of it himself, we had a number of regional offices where someone from the IT team had to visit every few weeks and they would travel in their own car and get paid mileage and the manager only ever picked his friend to go to the different offices even thought the other guys would have been able to do it, none of them ever complained thought as they would have to have gone to the manager and they felt there was no point as they didnt think they would have been listened to

KevinCavan

Don’t do it. There is a reason for the phrase “don’t mix business with pleasure.”

markpb

There are so many reasons not to do this, not all of them are within your control. It affects your relationship with that person, their relationship with you, their relationship with their coworkers and your coworkers relationship with you.

If they report to you, will you be able to reprimand them, fire them or make them redundant? Will you be able to keep company knowledge from them, even if it personally affects them? Will it make others feel that they can't approach you about problems with the person you hire? Will it make their coworkers uncomfortable taking about you when your friend is present, will they be excluded from conversation because of that?