• In my early 20s, I landed a job that became more about partying than working.
• I became close friends with my coworkers, and we all spent weekends together.
• Now, I work for one of those friends, and our dynamic is difficult to manage.

When I first graduated from college, I landed a sales job in New York City. The friends I met there in the first few months were some of the closest I had ever had in my life.

Nothing brings you together like late-night work sessions and huge commission checks you spend on anything you want because you're 22 and have never heard of a high-yield savings account.

Making work friends in my early 20s gave me the college experience I never had. We often had weekday sleepovers, where we would roll into the office in the same clothes we wore the day before. The idea of professional boundaries never even crossed my mind.

That's until my close friend at that job recently became my direct manager.

I got a new job at a tech startup and learned about professionalism

When I started working at a tech startup, I spent the next seven years forming close relationships with my co-workers, direct reports, and even my boss.

I was introduced to the delicate balance you can create between a boss and a direct report that allows you to be completely yourself while also maintaining mutual respect and a sense of authority.

We could seamlessly jump between presentation prep and sharing personal anecdotes about our struggles, our goals, and everything in between. The dynamics were playful and professional, whereas my first job was all play and no work.

As it usually goes, after seven years at the tech startup, I decided to part ways with the business. Unemployed, I found myself at a wedding next to an old friend and coworker from my first play-only job. She had recently gotten recruited to take over the office and offered me the opportunity to come on board as a contractor for a few months to earn some extra cash while I was in between jobs.

A few months turned into a full-time position

After everything I learned about this delicate balance of coworker and friend, nothing could have prepared me for that reporting line shift. The last time I worked with my now boss, we were 23 years old, night swimming on Fire Island at three in the morning on a Thursday. Now, I'm filling out my end-of-year review, reflecting on how I did so that my friend can decide whether or not to give me a raise.

To put it simply, it felt pretty weird.

I have always thought of her as a wild friend first and a coworker second, but since rejoining the company, we have both had to flip that prioritization. It helps that we're almost 10 years older, but it's still been a hard transition.

We have had to put our friendship on the back burner and be more professional with one another. We use Teams to catch up instead of texting. We share weekend plans during our 1:1 instead of naturally calling each other to check-in. I find myself more hesitant to say things that I wouldn't have given a second thought to before, and I can feel her hesitation as well.

In some ways, it feels like I am mourning the loss of our pure friendship, which is now muddled by salary discussions and time off requests.

As hard as it is, there are also a lot of benefits to reporting to a friend

Maybe it's a loss of a pure friendship, but it also feels like a gain of something pretty incredible.

I have always felt that the most important thing about a work environment is who you work with. I feel safer and more comfortable knowing that I have a friend in my corner, and I think she feels the same way, too.

I never would have even known about this job opportunity without my friend encouraging me to take the role. Even more importantly, she knows me so well that she has faith in my abilities and trusts me completely. I have been given more responsibility and autonomy in a few months than most people get after years because it takes time to build that level of trust with a new manager.

Working for a friend works for me — for now

Right now, in my career, I crave autonomy and trust. I believe I have earned that faster by working for a friend.

There may come a time when I'm seeking more mentorship or diverse experience from my manager. When that time comes, I will need to shift away from reporting to a friend and start fresh.

When I consider the times I have worked with friends vs. when I have not, working with them comes out on top every time. But working for them might be something I only do a few times in my career.

• I taught preschool for two years and loved it.
• But at the same time, I couldn't support myself financially.
• I applied for an office job and was reminded of how to interact with other adults.

I taught preschool for two years. Frankly, it was delightful. It was fulfilling, meaningful work that left me feeling full-hearted at the end of every day.

The problem was I couldn't support myself and my son on that salary as a newly single mom. Instead, I dove into the corporate world head-first, but it wasn't without sacrifices.

The job search process was time-consuming

First came the job application process. I spent hours each day sending résumés to whoever might take me, desperate to step into the breadwinner role now that I was on my own.

After three months of crafting bespoke cover letters for every employer I sent an application to, I finally found it: an entry-level marketing role at an online health publisher that had my name all over it.

That's when the culture shock really set in.

As a preschool teacher and the mother of a toddler, I had hardly touched my laptop for the last two years. My son and I had a set routine of attending school together every day: his place of learning and my place of work.

I was home in time to make dinner every night, and our weekends were filled with parks and playgrounds. We were a part of a small, tight-knit community of teachers, administrators, and a few involved parents. It was cozy, comfy, and sweet as can be.

I wondered whether it was worth it

Now, I was suddenly thrust into the fast-paced, competitive environment of San Francisco's startup world — and my head was spinning.

My son was the first kid at day care and the last to come home owing to my new 3-hour roundtrip commute. Before, he got to attend the school I taught at for free. Now, half of my paycheck went to childcare.

I started to question whether it had all been worth it, whether I had given up something precious and rare just to make money — like so many others — and still barely make ends meet. But I told myself to stick it out, trusting that even if I couldn't see where my new career would take us, we'd land where we needed to be.

Once I started adjusting to my new role, there were plenty of perks to enjoy.

There were perks

For the first time in my life, I had quality benefits (full medical, vision, dental, and a 401k), and it was refreshing to be in an office with people my age. It was the first time I had meaningfully interacted with adults outside a kid-focused setting in years. I had sort of forgotten what grown-up me was like. Frankly, I probably came on really strong.

I felt like a fish out of water as a 20-something kid-at-heart hippie in a corporate setting wearing blazers and flats for the first time in my life, but it was exhilarating to try on a new and dynamic persona and see how it all played out.

At the same time, I genuinely missed my role as a teacher and all that after-school time with my son.

Sure, we had cold brew on tap and office-sponsored happy hours every Thursday. I got to lead the Celebrations Committee and organize extravagant parties for special events and birthdays on the company dime.

Still, that didn't compare to watching a whole community of children growing from babies into school-ready kids over the course of a year. It didn't compare to the showers of heartfelt gratitude we teachers received from parents for caring for their children when they were away.

And it certainly didn't compare to storytime snuggles, end-of-day hugs, and the love and trust that we earned from our students for being there for them day after day.

All that said, I wouldn't change a thing. My career had a bumpy, awkward start, but now I get to work from home, homeschool my son, cook dinner every night, and spend zero time commuting. I can contribute to my community, grow a garden, and walk my dog.

I'm even nursing a little fantasy about one day returning to preschool teaching just for the joy of it — and supporting myself with a freelance career. We'll see what unfolds, but I don't regret rolling the dice, even though I still miss all the kids.

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• Walmart has a shiny new 350-acre headquarters in its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.
• The sprawling corporate campus features bike trails, a food hall, and childcare facilities.
• Here's an inside look at the multibillion-dollar project.

Walmart has come a long way since 1962.

The world's largest retailer just officially opened a new 350-acre headquarters in its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.

Friday marks the start of a phased opening, with two office buildings open now and 10 more to follow.

Elsewhere on the sprawling campus, employees and visitors can access bike trails, a food hall, childcare facilities, and a massive fitness center.

"Our founder, Sam Walton, knew that when we all work together, ideas flourish," CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement. "This campus will allow us to keep making a positive difference in our customers' lives for generations to come."

Here's an inside look at the multibillion-dollar project.

Dramatic footage showing streaks of light zipping across the sky surfaced online following Elon Musk's Starship explosion over the Atlantic Ocean.

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If capitalism without bankruptcy is like Christianity without hell, as former astronaut and Eastern Airlines CEO Frank Borman famously put it, then the U.S. over the past decade or so has been a joyous church indeed.

Why it matters: We're now beginning to see signs that the days of very few bankruptcies might be coming to an end, thanks in large part to the Fed.

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How we got here: The financial crisis of 2008 to 2009 saw a sharp rise in bankruptcies, as you'd expect.

• It also caused the Fed to cut interest rates to zero and to keep them there for many years.
• It led bank regulators to get stricter about the amount of risk they allowed banks to take on, even as borrowers also started to get worried about the consequences of having too much debt.
• The result was a years-long decline in bankruptcy filings, as smaller debts became easier to refinance in an easy-money era.

Where it stands: A recent uptick in the numbers suggests that era might have ended with the Fed rate hikes of 2022. As CEA chair Jared Bernstein tells Axios, "we know this variable is pretty highly elastic to rate rises."

The big picture: Bankruptcy — a process that wipes out debts and allows fresh starts — is a necessary part of any dynamic economy.

• Fewer bankruptcies isn't always a good thing. It can be a sign of excessive risk aversion on the part of both lenders and borrowers, a paucity of what John Maynard Keynes characterized as "animal spirits."
• As University of Illinois law professor Robert Lawless notes, bankruptcy filings are not a good measure of the health of the economy. "Note how bankruptcies declined as the economy went into recession in the early 2000s," he said of the chart above.

By the numbers: Bankruptcy filings by companies with assets or liabilities greater than $2 million if they're public (or $10 million if they're private) rose to 694 in 2024. That's up 9% from 2023 and up a whopping 87% from a record low of 372 in 2022, per S&P Global.

• Overall, business bankruptcies in U.S. courts rose to 22,762 in 2024, up 33% from 2023 and up 73% from 2022.
• Those numbers are less precise than they seem, since the default setting on most bankruptcy-filing software is "consumer" rather than "business" and many business filers don't check that box.
• Meanwhile, many large corporate bankruptcies involve simultaneous filings from hundreds of subsidiaries, which can result in the numbers being exaggerated.

Yes, but: The absolute number of bankruptcies is still low, even after the recent increases.

• In 1997, for instance, there were 54,252 business bankruptcy filings, and 6.1 million business establishments in the U.S., for a ratio of 0.9%.
• By 2024, that ratio had fallen to 0.3%.

The bottom line: When rates rise, they bite harder. But an economy with more bite isn't always a bad thing.