Had to fire my childhood best friend who was working for my small business in Denver and now our entire friend group is taking sides

My name is Kevin, I’m 31, and I run a small custom furniture business in Denver, Colorado. I started the company about three years ago after leaving my construction job. It began as a one-man side hustle building tables and cabinets in my garage, but over time it slowly grew into something real.

Right now it’s still small — just four employees including me — but the business has been doing well enough to keep everyone busy.

About a year ago, my childhood best friend, Matt (30), asked if I could give him a job.

We’ve known each other since we were about 10 years old. Same neighborhood, same high school, same friend group. We’ve been through a lot together, so when he said he had just been laid off and needed work, I didn’t hesitate.

I hired him as a shop assistant.

At first everything was great. He learned quickly, customers liked him, and honestly it felt good having someone I trusted working with me every day.

But after a few months, things started changing.

Matt began showing up late — sometimes 20 or 30 minutes after we opened. At first I brushed it off because everyone has bad mornings sometimes. But it kept happening.

Then there were the missed deadlines.

A couple of customer orders that he was responsible for measuring ended up being wrong, which meant we had to remake parts and eat the cost.

I pulled him aside privately and talked to him about it. I told him I needed him to take the job seriously because mistakes were starting to hurt the business.

He apologized and promised he’d do better.

For a few weeks, things improved.

Then it got worse.

He started calling out sick on days when we had major deliveries scheduled. A few times I later found out he had been out drinking the night before. My other employees started getting frustrated because they were the ones picking up the extra work.

One of them even asked me directly, “Are the rules different for Matt because he’s your friend?”

That question hit me hard.

I realized I had probably been giving him way more slack than I would give anyone else.

So I had one final conversation with him.

I told him clearly that if the lateness and missed work continued, I wouldn’t have a choice but to let him go. He seemed annoyed but said he understood.

Two weeks later he didn’t show up at all on a day we had three customer pickups scheduled.

No call. No message.

I ended up covering everything myself and staying at the shop until almost midnight finishing orders.

The next morning I told him he was fired.

It was one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had.

He didn’t take it well.

He said I was choosing my business over our friendship and that “real friends help each other out.” I told him I had already tried to help him — for almost a year — but I couldn’t risk the company or my other employees’ jobs.

Since then things have gotten messy.

Our entire friend group seems to be split down the middle. Some people say I did the responsible thing as a business owner. Others think I should’ve given him more chances because we’ve been friends for 20 years.

Matt hasn’t spoken to me since.

I hate that things ended this way, but at the same time I feel like I didn’t really have another option.

Running a business is hard enough without mixing friendship and employment.

I just didn’t expect it to blow up our entire friend group.