Effective communications are crucial to the daily office network and team bonding. One of the easier ways to reach out and make stronger connections with your coworkers is to be relatable to others, like sharing details on your personality through your personal lifestyle habits.
People should know that you are not only a hardworking colleague that have ingenious ideas who works in the accounts department but also as an individual who occasionally loves to bake delicious cookies on weekends, have two children, a supporter of LGBTQ and recently been to the Bahamas for a short getaway. Sharing details of who you are as a person will create a bond with the other person regardless whether they share the same hobbies or lifestyle as you.
However, there is a fine, thin line bordering on tipping over to oversharing your personal life and views causing more harm or rather an irritation than to create a bond with the other person. Below are some of the subjects that we tend to overshare so be careful.
Babies & Children
We are so proud of our little ones that sometimes we can be over enthusiastic as parents or grandparents. If you say yes to more than one of the following, you are in danger of oversharing:
- Desktop wallpaper and screensaver full of photos of your kid
- You have at least 3 photo frames of your kid
- Your Monday’s story always never fails to mention what your child did over the weekend.
- Your pantry conversations are all about the latest baby product reviews (unless of course, you work at Johnson & Johnson
- You form lunch group with the Mums in your office
- Instead of brainstorming on your next marketing ideas, you share baby photos with anyone sitting next to you in the meeting room.
Latest Love Life
We know it is hard to meet someone interesting enough to date nowadays, even on Tinder. You are in love, and you want to shout on top of your lungs. We get it. But flaunting your hickeys on your neck, gazing into thin air during meetings and giggling at some random messages you received for the fifth time within an hour is a big no no. Worse when you start sharing your dating escapades and your sex life. Seriously….nobody really wants to know about the one night stand you scored at the club last night.
Travel Tales
We love hearing travelling stories and looking at your countless photos of the same beaches in different angles but don’t expect us to go ‘wow’ at every picture you showed us. That is what Facebook is for, to ‘like’ your 32 photos of sushi. Travel stories and photos are only as exciting as if I am the traveller. Plus there are thousands of blogs and websites for reference if we really want to find out more about the location you’ve been to.
Confidentiality
The obvious rule is that if something is confidential, it should stay secret. You may instantly feel puffed up and important, sharing something confidential but it will come back to bite you in the back eventually. As much as I always believe that knowledge is power, some information is better left unknown especially if it will affect how you perceive and influence your decisions or performance.
Political Opinions
Trump or Clinton? Bad or Good? Democrats or Republicans? Regardless, keep the political issue out of the workplace. Political views when not reign in can ruin a good bonding relationship in teams and departments. You are entitled to your opinions, sure, you have your rights, just keep it to yourself.
Do you have coworkers that share way too much and get on your nerves? Please share it in the comments below!
MiddleMe 
I don’t think any Facebook profile is complete without 33 photos of sushi! Great post!!
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Haha! You’ve got me cracking! For Facebook profile, you’ll need to add another 300 selfie photos of yourself pouting at random events. 😉
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Thanks for the information and advises…
If you share too much, it will no doubt bite you back someday. People should refrain from sharing personal opinions not just at work but anywhere.
Answer as much as you are asked stick to the point.
Sometimes even I feel that I get too excited during conversations and end up sharing a lot.
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I get excited and tend to verve towards oversharing too!! I always need to hold myself back and make sure I don’t overwhelm the other party. Thank you for sharing!!
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Great post !
I think It is better to keep some distance between your work and personal life.
Perhaps 6 photos of sushi is enough 🙂
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Haha!! Hard to choose any 6 photos of sushi! 😉 thank you, dear Dave for your support!
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Thats true ! Cheers 🙂
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Cheers! Hope you’re having a smashing weekend!!
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Thanks Kally, you too 🙂
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Are you familiar with floodlighting?
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Almost the same as high beaming!
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Maybe. Brené Brown describes over sharing personal/intimate details with just anyone as “‘floodlighting’ – where we use vulnerability as a manipulation tool. “When we use vulnerability to floodlight our listener, the response is disconnection,” says Brown in her book, Daring Greatly. Closely linked, she says, is the ‘smash and grab’, in which you “smash through people’s social boundaries with intimate information, then grab whatever attention and energy you can get your hands on … In our social media world, it’s increasingly difficult to determine what’s a real attempt to connect and what’s performance.””
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Thank you for sharing that!! I didn’t know and I learnt something today!
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Great post! People don’t realize how important this is.
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Thanks Jennie!!
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You are welcome, Kally!
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Oh yes! And I am also not interested in what product your use for your laundry, or what nail-polish is more beautiful. I think the reason why I always preferred to work with men.
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Haha!! But with men, it could be football results and car parts.. I couldn’t stand those as well.
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Yes, but somehow I prefer those chats 😉
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I do understand what you are saying but one of my favorite classes was about open communication. If you don’t share some personal information, then others won’t share with you. Building rapport works in business, otherwise those who go golfing or bowling are wasting their money.
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I guess the key word here is to find a balance. Keeping yourself recluse in the office isn’t ideal as well.
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