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Busy employees are jeopardising their careers by relying on work for friendships, according to a relationships expert. Long working hours are increasingly replacing personal friends with work colleagues. But the phenomenon is not necessarily a happy one, with work friendships often turning out to be devastating mistakes.

Women are most at risk, according to sociologist Dr Jan Yager, author of When Friendship Hurts. “There is a lot of potential for complications for women… especially if they allow themselves to be pulled into gossip,” she said. “Many women raising children may think, if I have friends at work, at least I have friends, and my life isn’t all work and family.” “They may be neglecting their personal friends and share too much with work colleagues.” “Men are more likely to hold back instinctively. They can have friendships where they don’t share intimacies.”

Dr Yager said she had heard many “horror stories” about career-damaging relationships.

* A 48-year-old woman missed out on a promotion because her “friend” told the hiring committee she was still “too wounded” from her divorce.

* A 24-year-old teaching assistant was fired after her “friend” fabricated stories to their boss after a falling out.

* A 28-year-old woman’s so-called “friend” went to her boss and fabricated a story of her being pregnant when she heard she was being promoted over her.

Would you like to reconnect with your family, how about looking into a work from home opportunity?

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.