Frolleague is a term used to describe colleagues who are also friends, either close or not. They can be made through work or social networking sites, but can also be a risk to professional life if personal information is shared. It is debated whether friends and colleagues should be kept separate.
A friend is a friend and a colleague. It is a social slang term that mixes the two words. Colleagues are people you work with and are friends with. They may or may not be close friends and are often connected via social networking sites.
Colleagues generally meet at the workplace and the couple’s relationship usually begins as colleagues. This can escalate into a friendship by complaining about the job or wages, or uniting against a common enemy like a boss. People who work together have many opportunities for interaction and often grow closer. They can go to a bar together for a drink and develop a friendship outside of work. This is just one type of frolleague.
Frolleagues can also take the form of people you meet at work that you wouldn’t be caught with outside of work. These coworkers may be friends at the office, but they’re generally someone you don’t socialize with in the real world. They are more than colleagues, but they are not really friends. They’re valuable allies at work, but not interesting enough to introduce to your other friends.
Another way to make frolleagues is through social networks. After leaving a company, or while still in a company, a person can find friends through Myspace, Facebook or any other online social network. A friend request can be sent to colleagues, and accepting the friend request results in the two becoming friends. Mates can then develop a friendship from this social network connection. This type of friendship can develop into both the friendship mentioned above, and the close friendship, and the “just at work” friend.
But frolleague is a dangerous relationship that can come back to haunt a person in their professional arena. A person often uses a social networking system like Facebook to connect with friends, share stories and make plans. These networking programs can be littered with embarrassing stories, past mistakes, or interesting photographs. A person may not want their boss, colleagues, or clients to see or have access to this personal life outside their professional life. But including colleagues in a personal social circle as friends opens these doors to the entire office. This type of relationship can cause a lot of pain at work, from jokes and taunts, to serious recriminations from a boss or a big client.
Many argue that it’s important to keep friends and colleagues apart, but those addicted to the social networking scene, or those with many close friends at work, insist on having many friends, regardless of whether it risks professional meltdown and embarrassment or less.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
