Hey guys, this is probably going to be a (well-formatted!) wall of text. I don't even know if there is a solution. I partly want to vent, and on the off chance that someone knows how to deal with it, that's great.
Okay so background. I've worked with coworker for over 2 years. We only really got close enough to be friends this year. This guy is bipolar and unmedicated because he claims he can't afford it and refuses to believe the free clinic can help him. He's 30 and lives with his parents because he says he has to take care of them, they're also unmedicated and have a ton of problems, and he has two younger siblings who live in the house and don't help out.
We're also friends with another coworker. We all used to hang out together but lately it's just her and I doing everything. We try to get the male coworker to go out with us or to visit or just do anything with us and he always has some excuse about having to be home or his mom will freak out. So her and I feel bad that he's always in a bad mood, but it's like, we're doing what we can to try to take his mind off it, and I personally am almost out of patience. I feel like friendship needs to be a two-way street. I have anxiety and depression but I treat it, I don't let it affect my friendships.
So the problem now. Our work isn't particularly skilled, it's just rather boring. So the smartest thing to do is to talk to make time go faster. The problem comes into play when this male coworker has a bad day the night before and will just sulk and brood literally the entire work day. He'll put on his headphones and leave me with no one to talk to except my partner who barely speaks English. I love her, she's great, but we literally can't have a conversation unless it's about work since she's learned those English words out of necessity. Our other coworker friend works in a different part of the room so I can't talk to her.
We had our performance reviews last week. Our boss called out the male worker for his attitude affecting morale. He didn't agree with it. I told him personally that it made my day less fun when he's not around to talk to, but apparently it didn't sink in.
It's getting to the point where I want to talk to our supervisor about our friend's poor attitude. But I know if I say anything, he'll feel like I'm betraying him because he doesn't like our supervisor. I just don't know what to do. I like my job, but he makes the day go by so slowly when he's in a bad mood, which is 4/5 days. If this were any other coworker, I'd go to the supervisor, but him being a friend severely complicates it.
Anyone have any ideas for dealing with this extremely temperamental friend? Did I explain myself well? Please ask questions if I didn't make something clear, this is always swirling around in my head and I probably left out a few things to clarify it.