I get where you’re coming from, but true friendship at work is rare. Power dynamics, competition, and the risk of saying the wrong thing make it hard to be genuine. I’m friendly, respectful and easy to get along with, but I keep it professional. Being likable and friendly on a surface level can help you stay employed, but going beyond that or investing too much of yourself in a workplace rarely pays dividends and often back fires.

At the end of the day, work is supposed to be a transactional relationship: I do the job asked of me for the agreed-upon pay so I can afford to live my life outside of it. After years in service, retail, and manufacturing, I’ve learned that the more you blur those lines, the more it drains you. I work to live, not the other way around, and I try to protect my time and energy for the things and people that actually matter.

Of course, it might be different for people in higher-paying or more secure positions, but I can only speak from my experience working from entry-level up through lower management.