Friends-slash-co-workers...how often does it really work?

Unless you work part-time, chances are you spend more time with co-workers each day than you do with your family and non-work friends. You build relationships, do lunch and happy hour, take breaks at the receptionist's desk and catch up on gossip and the latest episode of Lost. You build connections and many times, make friends.

We've all received advice or read articles telling us to keep our work relationships professional and separate from the rest of our lives, but more and more, there is also a realization that we having friends at work can make us not only happier but better workers.

So which is it?

Two of my best friends are women who I met at the workplace - in fact, they both write for YoLadies.com! A lot of beloved former co-workers brighten my day by posting on Facebook, and many of my husband's friends were formed out of working relationships. I think we would all agree that unless you're a stick-in-the-mud, making friends at work is natural and even necessary, and they can enhance your non-work life tremendously.

Then there are horror stories about work friendships gone wrong - you know, someone gets a promotion and their friends-turned-employees get jealous and have a hard time making the adjustment, or the old gossip mill rears its ugly head, and rumors turn "friends" into enemies. In my own recent experience with huge corporations and the bad economy - where layoffs are rampant and scary - self-preservation and Steve Jobs wannabes who create wars between teams drive relationships (and companies) into the gutter. There seems to be a real difference in making friends at a small company versus a large corporate type company.

Now that almost everyone is on Facebook and friending people left and right, there is even more to worry about when it comes to workplace relationships. I recently went through my personal Facebook account and deleted several co-workers, most of whom are probably great people, but then that word, probably, is the key. I didn't really know them, didn't have a lot in common, and was letting them in on my personal life anyway. Two of them were actually terrible trouble-makers and I shouldn't have friend-faced them to begin with, but how do you friend some co-workers and not others, and maintain a peaceful relationship at work?

While making friends at work is natural and many times good, it's a gamble no matter which way it goes. The word friend isn't what it used to be, the workplace isn't what it used to be, and so it seems like we have to make up new rules for the people we connect with from work.

How do you handle friendships in the workplace?