Are your colleagues your best friends as well? Do you ever feel the pressure of being friendly to your colleagues even when you do not want to? Can colleagues offer friendship which is selfless and above office politics? Can you really trust your colleagues with details from your personal life?

So often, we do not even realize that these questions exist in a working environment. If asked, most of us will outrightly say that we want to keep a line between professional and pesonal life. I am really surprised at this tendency. If somebody works with you, does it mean he is not worth making a friend? Colleagues are people with whom we spend the maximum time of our week. Still we can not visualise them as friends.

I actually did a small informal survey at my work place, and the results were an eye-opener. Most of the people are under the impression that colleagues can never replace the natural friends you make under different circumstances. Yet, when asked to provide the percentage of colleagues among their best 5 friends, the average result stood at 2.6%. When asked about the average time spent outside office with colleagues, the combined result was approximately 1.5 hours.

I agree it was a small sample set but it really opened up a window of thought. Why can't be colleagues your best friends? What is it that lead us to disbelieve our colleagues? Intentionally or otherwise, we end up spending considerable time with our colleagues. Then why are we shy of accepting them as friends?

I explored further and the results shook me. One comment read "I fear sharing personal details is not risk free. If we would be in a tiebreaker situation over, lets say, a promotion, he could use it against me." Another said, "I occassionally share some personal experience with a colleague who I admire, but I am always concerned that things might leake out. He has other friends as well and who stops him from sharing my stuff with crowd."

Friends, not all people in this world are villains. World is full of bad people, but it is equally rich with good people. Colleagues are afterall humans like you, me and your childhood pals. They also have the same emotional needs that you have. In today's corporate world, where working 10-12 hours a day has become a norm, most of the issues surrounding you are related to work. These are the issues which your spouse or childhool pals do not understand. You need someone inside the system who understands intricacies, complications and implications. You need someone who understands the underlying reasons of your insecurity or the injustice dealt to you by your boss or how great shifting to a different department will be for your career. You got to accept that almost everyday you have these conversations with your colleagues. if you can trust them with something that affects your livelihood, why can't you trust them with something that is related to your heart?

It is high time you gave it a try.