Should You Be Friends with Your Employees?

I've heard strong opinions about whether or not it's OK to be friends with people you manage. It's controversial for some reason. Over the years, some of my best relationships are with people I used to manage.

Friendship, to me, is simply a high expression of a relationship. If we're meant to cultivate strong relationships with people we manage to help grow their careers, odds are it will become something that looks like friendship.

But, what happens when you need to provide constructive feedback to a friend you manage? I'd argue the same thing happens when you provide feedback like that to your non-work friends: You take a constructive moment and grow from it.

Sure, but what if you have to let this person go? Won't that affect your friendship? Yes. Yes, it will. But, as it happens with "real" friendships, your relationship will sustain if you care enough.

We all work too much to have arbitrary rules about "work friends" vs. "real friends." Silly customs get in the way of forming meaningful culture.

What do you think?