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It is a mistake for managers to wade into the business of friend-making, and not just because it royally misses the point. The defining characteristic of friendship is that it is voluntary.
经理们干涉交友是错误的，这不仅仅是因为他们完全没有抓住重点。友谊的决定性特征是交友要凭自愿。
Employees are adults; they don’t need their managers to arrange play-dates. And the workplace throws people together, often under testing conditions: friendships will naturally follow.
员工都是成年人，他们不需要经理来安排玩耍聚会。而职场往往在考验人的条件下将人们聚集在一起：友谊自然会随之而来。
The bigger problem is that workplace friendships are more double-edged than their advocates allow. They can quickly become messy when power dynamics change.
更大的问题是，职场友谊比其倡导者所认为的更具双刃性。当权力动态发生变化时，职场友情可能很快就会变得一团糟。
The transition from friend to boss, or from friend to underling, is an inherently awkward one (“This is your final warning. Fancy a pint?”). And friendships have the potential to look a lot like cronyism.
从朋友变成老板，或者从朋友变成下属，这在本质上就很尴尬(“最后警告你一次。想去喝一杯吗？”)。而且友谊有可能看起来很像任人唯亲。
A clever study by Zoe Cullen of Harvard Business School and Ricardo Perez-Truglia of University of California, Berkeley, found that employees’ social interactions with their managers could give their career prospects a boost relative to others.
哈佛商学院的佐伊·卡伦和加州大学伯克利分校的里卡多·佩雷斯-特鲁利亚进行了一项巧妙的研究，并发现相比与其他人，员工与经理进行社交互动，可能会给他们的职业前景带来助力。
The researchers looked at promotions of smokers and non-smokers who worked for a large bank in South-East Asia, hypothesising that sharing smoking breaks with managers who also indulged might give workers a leg-up.
研究人员研究了在东南亚一家大型银行工作的吸烟者和不吸烟者的晋升情况，假设是与同样吸烟的经理在休息时间一起吸烟可能会给员工带来晋升机会。
And so it did. Smokers who moved from a non-smoking boss to a puffer were promoted more quickly than those who moved to another non-smoker.
事实的确如此。一些吸烟者的老板从不吸烟的人换成吸烟的人，另一些吸烟者换了一个不吸烟的老板，结果前者比后者晋升得更快。
The authors found that social interactions did not just help smokers; socialising between male managers and male employees played a large role in perpetuating gender pay gaps.
作者发现，社交互动不仅帮助了吸烟者，而且男性经理和男性员工之间的社交活动也在固化性别薪酬差距方面起到了很大作用。
If firms are going to make friendship their business, they should worry about its downsides, too.
如果公司打算把职场友谊也当作自己该管的事，他们也应该考虑这些不利之处。
Companies should facilitate interactions between employees, particularly in a world of hybrid and remote working. Social gatherings and buddy systems are reasonable ways to encourage colleagues to meet each other and to foster a culture.
公司应该促进员工之间的互动，尤其现在有了混合办公和远程办公。社交聚会和伙伴制度是鼓励同事见面并培养企业文化的合理方式。
But a high-quality work relationship does not require friendship. It requires respect for each other’s competence, a level of trust and a desire to reach the same goal; it doesn’t need birthday cards and a shared interest in quiltmaking.
但高质量的工作关系并不需要友谊。它需要尊重彼此的能力、一定程度的信任，以及实现相同目标的愿望。它不需要生日贺卡，也不需要有缝被罩的共同爱好。
Firms should do what they can to encourage these kinds of relationships. If individuals want to take it further, it’s entirely up to them.
公司应该尽其所能地鼓励这种关系。如果员工个人想让关系更进一步，这应该完全由他们决定。
