For me, it's simple. If I know you and have reached a level of comfort where I can share a joke with you, I consider you as my friend. A friend, regardless of whether you are my colleague or a first time introduction. Again, I was surprised (I shouldn't have been, but nevertheless was caught off guard) by a not-too-recent occurrence.
A few weeks ago, a colleague and I went shopping for a birthday gift for another colleague. Although I am very new to the department, these two colleagues have been working together for many years - about 10, I would say.
We were looking at small tokens of appreciations like magnets and little books of quotes in a gift store, when I picked out a magnet that had a quote on good friendship. I asked my colleague what she thought about it and to my surprise she answered that the quote was more for friends but we were only colleagues.
I didn't betray my surprise. But it got me thinking, after working so many years together and sharing laughs and problems and life events together, a colleague is still a colleague and not a friend? Perhaps this is effective compartmentalising. But I feel that someone whom you have spent a lot of time with and largely on good terms with should deserve to be called a 'friend'. I don't know, maybe I give my friendship away too easily and everyone is considered a friend to me until I am proven wrong? I should start choosing my friends more carefully.
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