Does friendship at work help or hinder your career? Understand the limits Anyone who has accessed social media in recent months has probably come across videos about friendships at work. Trends on TikTok show how professionals created relationships in the office that end up lasting beyond working hours. This is the case of marine biologists Mônica Pontalti and Carolina Iozzi Relvas. They met in 2017, during Carolina's first embarkation to act as a marine mammal observer. ?? Do you have any reporting suggestions? Send it to g1 Living together during the 45 days on board strengthened their friendship, which evolved into a professional partnership. Today, Carolina is one of the main instructors at the training and course company founded by Mônica. Over the years, they have taught in-person courses in Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, in addition to various online trainings. According to Carolina, having a friend on board always made the work lighter and more welcoming. “On boats, where professionals spend long periods away from family and friends, having someone you trust makes a difference,” he says. Marine biologists Mônica Pontalti and Carolina Iozzi Relvas transformed a working partnership into a friendship that spans years and professional projects. Personal Archive Another example is that of engineers Catherine Ferreira and Lívia Cipriano Magalhães, whose friendship was born during training on board. Catherine joined a company specializing in automation and technology systems for vessels and had Lívia as an instructor on her first work trip. Even after no longer working in the same department, Catherine and Lívia remained close. Today, they work in different areas of the same company and rarely go on board together, but try to meet up during their days off, organize trips and participate in meetings with other colleagues. Engineers Lívia Cipriano Magalhães and Catherine Ferreira met while boarding and transformed their professional partnership into a friendship that lasts to this day. Personal Archive Limit between friendship and professionalism Experts interviewed by g1 say that building bonds in the corporate environment is healthy and brings benefits to both workers and companies. The challenge is to prevent personal relationships from interfering in professional decisions. "It is inevitable that we create relationships that go beyond the professional. We spend a lot of our day at work", says Muller Gomes, manager of recruitment consultancy Robert Half. According to him, friendships favor collaboration, make communication more fluid, strengthen the exchange of knowledge and contribute to career development through networking. In the expert's opinion, these relationships are also part of the so-called emotional salary — factors that do not appear on the paycheck, but directly influence the satisfaction and retention of professionals in companies. A good work environment, good relationships and a sense of belonging weigh heavily when someone decides to stay or leave a company. Loneliness at work affects almost half of Brazilians Arte g1 A survey by Indeed Brasil, carried out with 1,065 workers in January 2025, shows that friendships at work are perceived as a factor that favors professional performance. According to the survey: 57% believe that these links improve collaboration between teams; 52% say they make work more enjoyable; 50% say that having someone to talk to helps reduce stress; 45% associate friendships with increased motivation and productivity; only 7% say that they do not influence professional performance; 54% say they have a best friend at work. Another survey, from LinkedIn's Worker Confidence Index, shows that 55% of Brazilian professionals say they have friends at work, but only 35% consider this type of relationship necessary. In the United States, a KPMG survey of 1,019 workers found similar results. According to the study, 87% consider it very important to have close friends in the professional environment, and 84% say that these bonds are essential for mental health. Additionally, 57% say they would take a job with 10% less pay at a company where they could build close friendships, rather than work at one that pays 10% above market but doesn't provide those connections. “They create a fabric of trust that accelerates collaboration, increases the fluidity of deliveries and increases the feeling of belonging. No one delivers their best in an environment where they feel alone”, explains Camilla Pádua, lead partner of the people management consultancy area at KPMG in Brazil. When does friendship become a problem? Despite the benefits, experts warn that friendship cannot override professionalism. For Eliane Aere, president of the Brazilian Association of Human Resources of São Paulo (ABRH-SP), the main risk arises when the personal relationship starts to influence decisions that should be guided by technical and merit criteria, such as performance evaluations, promotions, task distribution and feedback. "Friendship should add value to your work, not take away its objectivity", he states. According to her, signs such as favoritism, difficulty in treating all colleagues with the same criteria and the formation of "cliques" indicate that the relationship is no longer healthy. Lucimara Costa, Human Resources director at Nexti, agrees and states that the problem begins when personal ties interfere with professional responsibilities. "When you fail to give necessary feedback to avoid hurting a friend or make decisions based on affinity rather than competence, that limit has been crossed," he explains. Another challenge appears when friends start to occupy leadership positions. For Rodrigo Vianna, transparency and professionalism are essential in these