Colleagues at work should be dedicated to personal life. So that they know the minimum, but enough so that there is no desire to tell stories about you, which happens when employees are too careful to hide their lives outside the workplace.
Bringing the secrets of your personal life to the court of the collective is not the best way to gain recognition from colleagues. Quite the opposite. People who constantly complain about life or, conversely, boast about their seedy idyll and the achievements of children, are not favored in the team, mainly for the eyes. So, if you are not eager to become the main topic of gossip at work, then try to reveal less secrets of your personal life to colleagues. The main thing is to know the measure in stories about yourself and your life outside the workplace, but you should not go to extremes either.
Extremity 1: "closed book"
In many collectives, there are people about whom nothing is known except for their name and position. They answer all questions about family, home and hobbies evasively and vaguely. It seems to be ideal - he does not share his experiences with the collectives and does not give reasons for envy either, but this does not save him from the fate of the hero of the latest gossip.
The fact is that overly closed people are literally made up of legends. Women are credited with numerous lovers, and men are accused of drunkenness and other male sins. Such myths, and it does not matter that few people believe in them, do not improve the reputation in the team.
If you are one of those who do not tell anything about themselves to colleagues at work, then it's time to open the veil of secrecy. From the fact that the team learns about your marital status, musical tastes, and also hear from you a couple of funny stories from childhood, you will not. But gossipers will quickly lose interest in you, having found a new victim for themselves.
Extremity 2: "I have a story to tell"
It doesn't matter what topic the office is discussing in the smoking room today, a colleague who always has something to tell will certainly remember a story on the topic under discussion. Literally everyone knows about him. And after the weekend, each of the colleagues will hear a vivid story about his trip to a picnic or celebration of his great-uncle's birthday.
Gossipers love these people too. Do you recognize yourself in the description? Behavior needs to be changed urgently. You need to talk about yourself, but only as much as people who are not part of a close circle should know. Otherwise, no matter how much they tell about themselves, they will talk about you behind your back even more.
We can say that sharing life stories with colleagues is possible, but dosed. Otherwise, it will take a long time to fix the reputation. In addition, representatives of both types of extremes are rarely promoted in position; it is unlikely that the leader will want to entrust serious work to his subordinates, who regularly become heroes of gossip wandering in the team.
