Niki is right. We tested this When Mai Tai and I became swanks . She is east coast and I am west coast. I was able to get HER sim to Walt's and I could get my own in. the only way SHE could get either sim was for ME to get one there first and then followed.
Wait until a work shift is over, then go to one of the more popular lots, Sims tend to go there to green up after work, chesk some bios and bookmark sims who are at same level. then you can follow someone to work.
unfortunatly, the Devs can't fix this unless they can duplicate it and since they are west coast, no ones been able to do that yet.