It is fine with being friends with people at work, but to maintain a healthy balance it is important that you are able to separate your personal and professional opinions. If you have a colleague at work who isn’t performing, it needs to be addressed, whether or not they are your friend. Vice versa you shouldn’t cast aside a good friend because you are embarrassed by their ability to do their job or that you don’t like the work they have given you to do. It may help for you to think of each person as having two sides – a work side and a personal side – and one should never tarnish the other.
This is a hard leap for some people to make and it may sound harsh - but ultimately you will be the one looking bad for protecting an underperforming staff member. The converse is true; just because you don't get along well with someone personally, you must not let this come in the way of a professional work relationship.
If they're good, they're good. If they're bad they're bad.
- TPN
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