Though HR professionals have long debated whether the boss should be friends with their staff - setting aside the David Brent example (pictured), as an entrepreneur and small business owner it can be a difficult situation to navigate.

Starting up your own company often means that you’ll be working closely with your employees for long hours; and in your startup’s early days, it’s unlikely that you’ll have a huge team of staff.

So it’s only logical that in the initial stages, you’ll end up knowing each other pretty well, and it might even feel like you’re a group of friends who work together. But as your business grows, this has real potential to become a problem; as your team expands, you’ll have to learn to put boundaries in place.

"A genuine friendship should be a relationship between equals"

Although some studies suggest that workers who are friends with their colleagues are up to seven times more engaged with their work, this doesn’t necessarily mean that you should be their friend; as a business owner, it’s more important that you’re just friendly.

This way, no one can get upset or accuse of you of playing favourites. And, you’ll be avoiding a variety of situations that have the potential to be uncomfortable for everyone involved.

While it’s okay to take in interest in an employee’s life – maybe they’ve recently had a baby, or been away on an amazing holiday – if you don’t display the same level of interest for all your staff, then it’s likely to be noticed. Though it may come from you being polite, if you’re consistently more polite to some staff and not to others, you run the risk of favouritism rumours starting.

Favouritism can lead to all manner of workplace problems

Furthermore, a genuine friendship should be a relationship between equals, and though you might feel like you’ve got a real friendship going on with one of your employees, it’s important to realise that they might not see it that way.

What you might see as a friendly invite to grab a beer and watch the football after work, they might see as pressure to spend more time with the boss; a combination which will only end in hurt feelings and disaster.

If you’ve struck up a friendship with one of your staff, it’s possible that this has an effect on the way that they’re treated in the office. Even if Pete is often late and frequently misses his deadlines, Pete is unlikely to be reprimanded because everyone knows that you and he are friends.

Ultimately, your workforce is unlikely to call Pete out on his behaviour; they’ll probably assume that you would side with him, essentially enabling him to continue underperforming.

Unfortunately, buddying up with your employees will almost always lead to whispers of favouritism no matter how hard you try to avoid them; even if you think you’re being objective, your subconscious decision making could mean that you’re probably not. And when appraisal and pay rises come around, you’re likely to favour those you know best and get on well with, even if it’s unintentional.

Then there’s the big question: if you’re truly friends with a member of your workforce, could you ever give them an honest review of their performance, and if needs be, terminate their employment? As a business owner, your company should come first, and when it’s best for the business you shouldn’t ever be afraid of letting an employee go because you’re worried about damaging your personal relationship.

'Great work Sarah, you missed all your targets again!'

But even though being friends with your employees can cause problems, it’s not all bad; our recent survey of over 1,000 UK professionals revealed that 90.5% of workers believe that friendships at work are important.

So don’t call off the Friday evening after-work drinks just yet; getting your team together for a few drinks could be a great morale boost, and result in an overall more productive workforce.

Remember though, that as the boss you should place being friendly with your staff ahead of being their friend, so if a few drinks turns into a night out on the town, it might be best to take a step back and let your staff bond without the boss hovering over.

By expressing a genuine interest in your employees and by socialising with them occasionally and up to a point, you should be able to build up healthy relationships. And then when it comes to putting the bottom line first, there won’t be any issues; you’ll have put boundaries in place, but you’ll be able to rest assured that you’re running a company of happy employees that you know you can get along well with.

Lee Biggins is founder and managing director of CV-Library.