How do I discipline coworkers who are also my friends?

They handed you a small bump in pay and a hard new job: telling your friends what to do, and sometimes correcting them. Standing between being their buddy and being their boss is genuinely awkward, and the raise barely covers the strain. Feeling caught is not a failure. It is the honest cost of stepping up. The trap is trying to still be exactly the same friend while also holding people accountable. You cannot be both in every moment, and pretending otherwise is what makes it messy. What works is being fair and steady, the same standard for everyone, no favorites, no dodging the hard talk because you like someone. Good friends can respect a fair boss. They lose respect for a wishy-washy one. When you have to correct a friend, be straight and kind, in private, about the behavior, not the person. Then let it go and treat them normally afterward. Most real friendships survive an honest boss who is fair. The ones that do not were leaning on you looking the other way. You did not ask to be in the middle, but you can stand there with fairness, and that is what earns respect on both sides.