They weren't ever your friends. People at work rarely transcend beyond co-workers and into actual friendship. If all you do together is work and around-work activities, they probably aren't your friends. You're effectively people locked in a cage together that happen to get along.
If you get together on days you don't work together then they might actually be your friend. If they've met your non-work friends they might be your friend. If they attend your birthday party where they don't work with 95% of people there they might be your friend.
If you don't invite them to those things you don't actually consider them a friend. If you hold any power over someone (e.g. CTO-employee relationships) and they do this stuff they still might not be your friend. But if they don't do any of this stuff they definitely, 100% are not your friend.
Also, one of the best ways to fuck up a friendship is to hire them. You need to be sure you can properly separate business and friendship if you ever do this.
They weren't ever your friends. People at work rarely transcend beyond co-workers and into actual friendship. If all you do together is work and around-work activities, they probably aren't your friends. You're effectively people locked in a cage together that happen to get along.
If you get together on days you don't work together then they might actually be your friend. If they've met your non-work friends they might be your friend. If they attend your birthday party where they don't work with 95% of people there they might be your friend.
If you don't invite them to those things you don't actually consider them a friend. If you hold any power over someone (e.g. CTO-employee relationships) and they do this stuff they still might not be your friend. But if they don't do any of this stuff they definitely, 100% are not your friend.
Also, one of the best ways to fuck up a friendship is to hire them. You need to be sure you can properly separate business and friendship if you ever do this.