Do you have friends at work?

I don't socialize on a regular basis with people from work. I will meet up with a large group for the occasional party at a restaurant, but that's about it.

Honestly, I just don't seem to share the same interests with most people I work with.

I also do not like to let my personal life mix with my social life because I have seen that mix cause a lot of problems for people. I have enough to worry about

On that note, I do have a couple of co-workers that I absolutely LOVE to work with and am so happy when I see their name on the schedule next to mine.

I have friends at work. Like other posters, we're busy with families and, often, school, but we do socialize out of work, too. It's pretty common on my unit.

Partly because there are enough nurses that you're bound to find someone you like and partly most of the time, you and another nurse are the only adults in a room for 3 days or nights in a row. It would be a verrry long shift if each of you huddled in your corners . But, I can see on other units how socialization out of work could be much less common.

Once..

And she moved away..

Seriously. I'm always friendly at work, we all get along, but I dont hang out after work, or on weekends with anyone. I dont feel that close to them.

I've *always* had a hard time making alot of friends - it takes me a while to open up - I was always the *very* shy child - I've come out of my shell alot, so to speak.

I had a best friend at my last job, and we hit it off instantly. I dont know what it was, but I do know that after she moved away, I seriously got depressed. We always hung out on our days off, I babysat after she had her son, went to photo sessions with them, etc. She moved, and I had nobody to hang out with anymore. (now I have the puppy, hes helping with that!)

I think i've sworn off close friends now after that..

Kidding, slightly..

It DEPENDS...

ON THE PERSON....YOU

ON THE PEOPLE.....YOUR CO-WORKERS

ON THE PLACE.......THE WORK ENVIRONMENT (i.e., friendly, hostile, etc)

Play it "by-ear."

You never know!

Guess I'm lucky. A fair few of the girls at work, I count them as true friends. These are the ones who are there, when I need them, and they need me. Friends I want to hang out with, not just because it's a work nite out! (and there are a few of those, who I can spend my shift with happily, but would not choose to spend my off times with, to share my family life with.) Friends , true friends, nomatter where you meet them, will always be there.

I do have one coworker whom I will meet for lunch or drinks outside of work. But this is pretty rare for me. I believe you have to be extremely careful who you allow into your out-of-work life. But it's not a reason to not make a true friend.

No, not yet, but I've only been there a few months. There are some that could be friends, I think - but they're also travel nurses and will probably leave before it gets to that.

I'm an older nurse, with 3 kids, house, and a dog, etc -- I just don't have time for friends from work, much less even friendships in general -- sort of sad, but my kids are active and it just takes priority now.

I do like some of the nurses on our unit a lot, though, and we chat non-stop about our kids, lives, etc. We TALK about going out, but it never seems to happen as we are always having to rush home....

In my former career, though, I had true friendships and still keep in touch w/ a few of them now for almost 20 something years. I wish I could have friends like that again ...but it's hard as time goes on.

I'm also very close to my husband and I think he and I tend to shut out the world and just like to be together .... we're weird like that. :loveya:

When I was in my 20's I was a lot more social with my coworkers. In fact, several of my best frineds are from that group. I think this is pretty rare. In 25 years since then I have had many jobs, had other friends from work but simply could not keep up. I think the older you get and the more demands you have on your time it is hard to have the time to make, let alone maintain, really good friendships. If I have time for a movie, a dinner out or a long phone call I try to do it with my girlfriends I already have. I am better at setting boundaries now as well. When I was younger I was pretty insecure and simply wanted approval from EVERYONE, so I tried to be all things to all people. I have seen some situations where a work friendship has caused problems. The good things about friends from work is they understand where you are coming from and hopefully have at least some basic common interests. Just be careful.

For me, it always seems a bit uncomfortable. It was different when I was in my 20's and single. Now, my family is my life and it takes up my time (which is how I like it). Also, when I leave my job, I don't want to be bothered. This may sound awful, but when I'm at work I'm very sociable and love to talk, but my job and life are pretty seperate.

I am cordial at work but try to keep my personal life from my co-workers. I don't want to be the subject of their gossip afterall. In my opinion, it is just better that way.

When I was single, many of my coworkers were outside friends. As I got older, married, had kids, etc., I gained more outside friends with similar interests. Currently my work friends are work friends, nothing else. And that's OK. Great people, but we don't do things outside of work. This may sound weird but I don't have time to keep up with a large circle of friends. I have family and a few close friends and that's enough at this point in my life.

We have a very cohesive group and there are several "groups", mind you not cliques, but ones that migrate towards each other, ie younger moms, moms of teens (and yes dads!), etc. We do a lot of things with and for each other. We will go root on our kids together, we have even been in DR with some of them, we have had fundraiser when some were stricken with cancer and we have cried over lost parents together.

I work with a very special group of 90 people! And many of them are true friends like I have never had before!