Work: Probably You Weren't Hired to Express Ideas and This Isn't School

 Unlike the media or what academia is supposed to be about, work is not the venue for free speech - or even the flow of ideas. That's what has always been the reality. However, the anything-goes conversational patterns unleashed by digital communications have created the illusion that employees can shoot from the lip. 

The Wall Street Journal exposes the perils of candid sharing about work on Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Chat and more. Not only do employers have access to that. They can identify the poster. Of course, that can bite employees in the rear. In highly regulated industries such as finance, what is shared can be against regulations and can get you fired.

The WSJ presents those posting risks well. But at the end of the article is this strange advice:

"'The safest way to complain about work is live and in person,' says Rita J. King, founder of workplace consulting firm Power Pairs. 'Anything that you say in a digital format could easily come back to bite you,' she says."

So can what you say in-person. King is so wrong.

Not only anything you say at work in any medium, including in-person, can be held against you. It probably will. The office grapevine has never been a safe zone. It has always been risk-laden.

What you say probably will be both repeated and misinterpreted. Expect to be called in by your superiors. Remember work is a competitive environment. Anyone can get the goods on you by transmitting what you supposedly said.

Okay, you think, you will only make positive recommendations for improvement. First, think strategically about those. Timing is everything. It might not be the right time.  And who will be the recipient of that idea? Expressing it to a member of another department could be transmitted back to your superior as an implicit criticism of your department.

How you make your living constitutes a unique context. Holding onto that source of income and possibly advancing require a deep understanding how the work world operates. Despite all the change, any negatives you communicate can at the very least hold you back and at the worst get you fired. 

The lack of communications know-how could be among the reasons that 60% of employers surveyed report that they already had terminated new college graduations this year.

In business and life you usually have only one shot at whatever. Up the odds of success with Jane Genova. I am an intuitive coach, tarot reader and content-creator. Complimentary consultation (please text/phone 203-468-8579 or email janegenova374@gmail.com)