But as was mentioned a few times in earlier comments, you have to understand that your own interpretation of the work-friend relationship can easily differ from that of your "friend's" understanding – and unless you're spending lots of time outside of the office as friends, the work-relationship may serve a true purpose but also be limited to office-proximity.

This doesn't mean that there isn't a geniune "friendship" – but it does mean than many of the variables that identify the friendship are based on work elements (deadlines, odd employees, an office tragedy) and may not extend to "outside" factors.

Understanding and accepting that, perhaps in time, if both parties care to, that office friendship can develop beyond the office – but these kinds of friendships take a while.

Perhaps a good litmus test as to sensing if a work-friend is also an "outside of work" friend – picture your work-friend sitting at the dinner table at your home, among your other non-work friends and consider if the mix would work – or if there was something awkward that might hinder that interaction. Also, consider what things in your non-work life your work-friends may learn about you – and if that'd add-to or taint your relationship.

I have been at a new job for 5 months and made one good friend who started two weeks before i did.

I felt that we shared our hopes and fears when we were both new, but now I realize tht she considers me merely a co worker while all this time I have perhaps been too presumptuous to actually consider her a true friend.

Now I am hurt and will probably back off, since my "friend" has sort of let me know that she does not consider me a friend.

Yes, work relationships are tricky, when i compare this friendship to those with whom I have shared my life for over 15 and twenty years, my husband, my best friend from college, and a handful of others who mean the world to me, i realize that if I left this new job tomorrow, there would be noone there with whom I would keep in touch. I am saddenned by this, but I need to make a living there, and I realize that at times I have lost my boundaries, cried to a few people andlooked quite unstable. I am still there because my work is quite good as a paralegal and I have a specialized skill in a very particular legal area.

I am lucky,because I have learned that I must become more professional in order to get the respect that my job performance actually merits.

The only good thing is that the firm I am in is a bit eclectic, creative, and esoteric, and no one there seems none too stable. I might actually be ahead of some despite my dramatic behavior.

I appreciate the place because in a sense I feel that I fit in well. but i am quite disappointed that the friend I thought I had made regarded me as a mere co-worker. That was truly an eye opener.