When to Zip-IT at Work
Do you work with people you share confidential information with to get or give a heads-up? If so, you could actually be adding more stress to your work life not less. Life is uncertain and while it may seem that “being in the know” helps protect you, it often has the opposite effect. Insider information, while quite irresistible, often only creates more questions in your mind and takes your focus off of what you do know and what you have in front of you.
Everyone does it!
While it is something nearly everyone does, many times in an effort to reduce stress, people are more often wrong than right which defeats the purpose. Sometimes the info-share is as innocent as giving a person the heads-up that they are about to get a job offer or that their department is getting a new software install. The problem is that while that piece of information may be true and accurate at that time, the conclusions drawn from it later are often wrong because the information may be taken out of context or may be old. We have all been in that pivotal meeting where a decision is made and five minutes later the group is moving in an entirely different direction. Information is fluid and changes constantly in today’s world.
Deal only with what you know
If you are in the habit of sharing confidential information, re-think that habit. If you are about to share some info pause for a second and examine your intentions and be honest with yourself—Are you trying to increase your perceived value to others? Consider keeping it to yourself or share with a spouse or friend not involved in your work. Perhaps you can find another way to help others without the risk. If you find yourself on the receiving end of information that should not have been shared, try and interrupt the conversation and tell the person you don’t want to know.
“It’s not me who can’t keep a secret. It’s the people I tell that can’t.”
— Abraham Lincoln
