Lesson 3: YOU MAKE COLLEAGUES IN WORK PLACE...NOT FRIENDS!

I interacted with a variety of people, from all parts of the country...big and small. And with every person there was a lesson to be learnt.

And though the number of lessons are innumerous, the one that I hold dearest to my heart is the first lesson my first Team Leader taught me.

YOU MAKE COLLEAGUES IN WORK PLACE...NOT FRIENDS!

All fresh and new to the world which was a total anti thesis of the world I had lived in, I was bound to look for friends, people who would make me feel comfortable. My life had made me totally vulnerable at that point of time and well...i was desperately looking for some comfort zones. My other life was totally messed...when i slept my friends went to college. And when i could talk...they were sleeping. And hence i made some major blunders. I started trusting people in the workplace and sharing my worries, my problems and everything under the sun. I made friends!

And then one fine morning i got the shock of my life...my so called friend was bad mouthing me. well...I was troubled. But i said nothing. Then another 'friend' approached my to be team leader and said that i should not be put in his team and that i needed her company for i was too vulnerable and we were the best of friends. I sat there, shocked and astounded but never said a word. The to be team leader then spoke with me alone and said that, "Kanika, we don't have friends in workplaces. We only have colleagues. The decision is yours..."

Honestly at that point in time i had thought that the team leader was completely out of his mind. That you can have friends anywhere.

But now i know. True you can have friends...but once you are out of that work place. When Working always and always remember...they are your colleagues. The way you shared your life with people who were your friend while in school and college...the same things make you vulnerable in workplace. One has to remember...All that glitters is not gold and People come in a variety of shapes and size and to deal with them you must remember this rule.

I am friends with a team leader of mine till date and he is a good friend...but the truth is...we became friends once I left working under him...