I now manage my work friend, and I keep rescuing her missed handovers
Career / Work“Can you cover me just this once?” used to be an easy message to answer. Since I became the production coordinator, it has started arriving every Thursday.
My friend prepares the image files that the catalogue team needs on Friday morning. Twice this month, she sent them after the cutoff. I stayed late to check them so the next team could start on time. She thanked me privately, and the rest of the team saw an on-time handover.
We joined the company together and still eat lunch most days. I became her manager eight weeks ago. She has also been assigned extra product shoots, so I can see a real reason why her afternoons run over. I haven’t worked out whether she needs less work, a different process or a clearer expectation that I won’t always catch the delay.
My own manager asked why I’m spending so much time on file checks. I gave a vague answer because I didn’t want to make my friend look bad before talking to her. Now that silence is starting to feel like a decision.
How would you have the first proper conversation? I want to understand the workload without continuing an arrangement where our friendship determines who gets rescued.