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Working with your friends

In the last fourteen months me and Moffett have worked twelve of those together. It hasn't been easy, not really that much fun and I know for a fact that if we hadn't have had a twenty two year previous friendship that there wouldn't be much of a friendship left.

There were no fall outs, no arguments. Granted there was the odd tension filled moment in a meeting, stand up or just general conversation. This made other people feel a bit out of place as we'd both just say what we thought and for those that know me I don't really hold back when I talk ;) Other than that it was plain sailing. It just both wore us down I think.

It is a different story if you become friends with people you work with but coming into a company where there is already an established friendship is odd. I naively didn't think it would be that big a deal. I was in a relationship with someone I worked with in a small company for a year and a half. However she worked in a different department than me and there wasn't that much interaction day to day in the office. With Moffett the freakishly large headed idiot was no more than 10ft away from me in a small office with (on average) eight other people.

As stated before me and Paul have known each other since we were eleven so the job was always secondary to us but as time wore on it became the primary focus when we talked. There was the odd time that something else took precedence. His wedding being one and his Sister having a wee baby boy the other. Other than that though it was all work all the time, which was fair enough since that's where we seen each other most.

This came to a head last week when I went to his house and his wife stated that I haven't been done at all this year (after the wedding - which was at the start of Feb). To be fair both me and Paul could see each other far enough - not in a bad way - just in a "we both can't be fucked" way :)

The hardest thing was having divided loyalties and people assuming that we lived in each other pockets. During these fourteen months we have worked together in two companies and I found that in each one we had similar experiences.

When Paul told me he was leaving I was relieved, it'll be good to have my friend back in a social way again. We both don't want to see or speak to each other until the end of this month when I go down to his new house for a BBQ/dinner.

So if you are thinking of working with a friend... just be careful :)

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