I believe we all deserve privacy no matter where we are but we also need to accept the consequences of our actions…people cannot eavesdrop if you are not talking when and where they can hear you.
People have families and doctors and creditors…that is well understood but when you give your number to people do not be surprised when they use it…however..be careful when you answer the phone at work.
I have heard extremely personal conversations that made me physically uncomfortable to hear them…and I am relatively sure that because my coworker was talking to a familiar person they lost track of their environment.
Oddly enough, people think because they bring their cell phone to work that they can have a personal call without consequences…well perhaps the company cannot monitor the call itself…but anyone within earshot can hear what you are saying. There is no immunity from repercussion just because you are not using company property!
I knew one person who was my office-mate for many years and she was a polite well mannered person at all times. She was a senior member of the team and we all looked to her for guidance and leadership…she was a great asset to the company and to all of us. But…she had no idea that her speaking voice on the phone was very loud and her phone personality was terrible at times…her manners went out the window when she talked to her creditors, her children’s school and just about any non work related call.Over the course of the 10 years I worked with her I discovered the following:
Her 2 daughters were constantly being treated for one illness or another
They struggled to pass their classes
Her marriage was always on the verge of ending due to her husband’s drinking
She had an affair with her neighbor that lasted a yearShe frequently tested the job market and interviewed with competitors
My point is that I trusted this woman a great deal when I limited it to a work context…but I began to change my opinion when I discovered so many personal things about her. I was only able to avoid hearing more by physically leaving the office when she had a personal call…which was so often it was simply not possible at times.
The personal information I stumbled upon was never something I repeated (I only refer to it now because she passed away several years ago) but I wonder how many other people expose themselves to ridicule or blackmail by flaunting (knowingly or unknowingly) their personal lives without giving thought to the consequences.We are paid for a variety of reasons…the work we do is the main one…but another reason is to give our undivided attention to our employer and support the company’s vision which requires our best effort.
We can make things a lot easy for ourselves if we balance our work life with our home life and take into consideration that we will be better employees when we focus.
