Question:
If you were looking to hire someone for
an open position and your best friend
applied for the job, (if he/she were
qualified) would you consider hiring
this person?

Choices:
Yes --- sure --- I don't see a problem
Yes --- but only if he/she were desperate for a job
No --- I value our friendship too much
No --- I like my friend but don't think he/she would make a good employee
Really don't know or don't care

 

Sure, if the friend is qualified, it shouldn't be a problem. One thing you'd have to do though is to have only an employer/employee relationship while on the job, and leave the best friend relationship at home.

I have worked for and have been boss over friends in the past. I have only had one major problem situation stem from that. In that case I believe we both were wrong to one degree or another and it was more a clash of personalities than a clash of work ethics.

I suspect that whatever issues that do emerge from that sort of situation is that the ground rules are not made firm to begin with. If you will be the employer/boss person, then you must treat your friend equally on the job as you as you would treat other employees. If you have other workers then you have to make certain you are not delegating the sweet jobs to your friend all the time. In turn they must understand that at work they will get jobs assigned to them based on know how not know who.

The only thing I can see negative about hiring a friend when they're qualified is that it might hurt a friendship perhaps? I think a true friendship would be strong enough to stay friends even if you had to fire her for a deserving reason.

I've surrounded myself with people that understand the diffrence between personal and business. If they didn't understand that, then none of us would be sucessful today.
Leave work at work, and personal stuff at home.