Rumors and conflicts, losing clients and severe competition are just some problems you might face at work. Many of us spend the majority of the time in office, and gradually, we start to treat colleagues as our close friends. However, you should be careful about what you discuss.
There is a list of things you shouldn’t discuss at work, even if you have a good relationship with people who surround you. Otherwise, you risk to face misunderstanding or unwillingly participate in conversations that are offensive or provocative. Scroll down to learn what subjects are better to avoid.
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Salary
This is confidential information. When you tell about your income, co-workers may get either jealous or underestimated, while people with higher salary might think you are the one who’s jealous. If everyone rushes to ask for a salary review after talking to you, you can be fired.
Political preferences
Discussing politics delves into personal beliefs and emotions. You can offend a person by simply sharing your preferences just because you never know what a person has been through. Expressing opinions on controversial political issues will affect your communication and, most likely, further working.
Religious, gender, and racial differences
These issues cause even more misunderstanding than politics, where choosing sides based on what is wrong and what is right is a bit easier. It is important to have a clear position regarding these issues, but leave the discussion for more suitable time and place.
Tastes of your colleagues
Actually, you shouldn’t judge anyone for their appearances, clothes, or habits at all. Don’t approach a person with recommendations on how to dress better, seem smarter, do their work more effectively, etc. If someone wants to hear your opinion, they’ll ask. Otherwise, you aren’t trying to be helpful, you’re just rude.
Family and personal life of your colleagues
You cannot come to inform your manager that you aren’t able to organize a meeting because of a fight with your wife/husband. Everything that happens at home should stay at home, especially when we are talking about other people’s lives. Discussing the life of your colleagues is simply unacceptable.
Your health
People don’t like to hear about your troubles and diseases. If you start talking about this, you will find sympathy and compassion but don’t expect any special attitude. You should keep working as you were. If you keep talking about your health, you’ll just become annoying.
How bad your job and workplace is
There are companies with better work conditions and social packages than your current workplace is ever going to provide. If you haven’t got a job offer from that company, you shouldn’t start to hate this one for being less impressive and your job being less cool. If you don’t like it, just leave and stop demoralizing the community.
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How bad your previous workplace was
If you want to talk about your previous job, keep the tone neutral. There is no need to curse everything, particularly, because it is a very subjective opinion. If you still need to answer uncomfortable questions, come up with polite wording. There is always a way to be more positive.
Your boss & management
People holding higher positions are people just like you. Yes, they earn more now, and this is the reason why they can afford some things you can’t. These people had to earn their promotion and have proper expertise for occupying current job positions.
Their personal life and the things they do during off-work hours aren’t a matter of your concern. Before critizising their decisions, make sure you are aware of all the nuances. And in the end, it is their job to act for the benefit of the entire company, not for you to be pleased.
Goals & plans
There are two interpretations of such conversations: you are looking for a new job or you are trying to occupy (someone else’s?) managing position. In any case, this is not what you should share with the office staff. Your words might be misinterpreted, and you may lose colleagues’ trust.
Read more: How To Quickly Climb The Career Ladder
Innovative ideas
We often think people are much better than they really are. When you come up with an idea that can benefit your company and boost your career, make sure no one is going to steal it. Besides, some people may consider your improvements a real problem so they won’t treat good a person who proposed the changes.
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