How do I manage a friend or former coworker?
Short answer
Have one direct conversation: the relationship is changing. From now on, the work conversations are work conversations, full stop.
The talk
'You're my friend and I value that. At work I'm your boss and that has to mean something. I'll be direct with feedback, the way I would with anyone. I'd rather we figure out how to keep both than lose both.'
Then hold the line
Same expectations as everyone else. No special favors. No looking the other way. Friends respect a boss who is fair. They resent a boss who is a pushover and then snaps.
Ask your version of this question
This is one business owner-tested take. Your shop size, trade, and team change the answer. Ask the exact version inside Ask a Shop Owner and get a response grounded in how owners like you actually handled it.
Now run it against your numbers.
This answer is written for shops in general. Inside Ask a Shop Owner it becomes your answer: your revenue, your crew, your market, your history. Ask "How do I manage a friend or former coworker" and get the version that accounts for what you already told us.
Was this helpful?
One click. It tells us which answers to deepen and which questions we still owe you.
Not ready for a trial? Take the scripts with you.
Leave your email and we send three short notes over the next week showing how owners used answers like this one on a real decision. No newsletter, no drip forever.
Three emails, then it stops. Unsubscribe in one click. We never sell your email address.