Imagine you’ve been working at your job for a while and made a lot of friends. But one day one of them gets a promotion — and now they’re your boss.

Working under your peers can be awkward and extremely difficult at best. Nonetheless, students can effectively manage and supervise other students when there’s a balanced level of respect between the two parties. It seems like an incredibly daunting task — having to boss your friends around, hold them accountable and punish them when they fail. But students all over the University of Oregon campus are working hard to push themselves and their peers in a productive direction.

Stephanie Palomino, the club soccer president and Student Program Assistant for Club Sports has run into conflict while supervising her peers. “One issue that I face quite often is that if a student I oversee is older than myself then they tend to look down on me or take me less seriously than students who are younger.”

Palomino adds, “The tricky part is managing my close relationships I had with someone before I began overseeing them. People who already know me on an intimate basis tend to expect special treatment or preference.”

University of Oregon Catering employs about 75 students, who are frequently promoted to management roles. Bryon Booker, the Director of Catering, said that all students come into catering at entry level jobs, but once they have worked a certain amount of events, they are given the opportunity to move up the ladder. This seems as if it would create tension between co-workers, especially for people who have been working at catering for a long time, but Booker disagrees.

“Because those students have worked at catering for so long, they already have respect from their peers,” Booker said. “Of course issues come up, and we deal with them as they come, but for the most part — they have the respect of their fellow employees.”

Respect — that’s the key to any functioning relationship, especially one with your boss. It is important to understand that they have their position for a reason, and power struggles aren’t worth losing a friendship over. It could also depend on the group you are working with. Some people just naturally fall in to leadership roles.

Helena Schlegel is a perfect example of this. Having recently watched the campaign she managed win the ASUO elections — she knows a thing or two about working with her peers.

For me, it wasn’t difficult at all to make meaningful relationships with the students who worked on the campaign,” Schlegel said. “We are all still close and spend time together often. It is great to be surrounded by great and passionate people both on and off the clock.”

So it is possible for students to be successful in leadership roles, while overseeing their peers. If both sides have mutual respect for one another, then there should be no problem.

When asked how she combats students who give her push back, Stephanie Palomino said, “The best thing I can do is to maintain a positive, professional attitude and treat everyone in my work environment with the same level of professionalism.”