Share your Story…. to an extent

         In my opinion, a top priority for every work setting is that every employee feels comfortable in the workspace. Yet, every rule has its limits and it seems my coworkers are pushing the boundaries of what comfortable entails. While it has been awesome that our Conference Services staff have cultivated such a comfortable and positive environment, we have experienced issues with people oversharing and opening up to people too quickly and putting other people in compromising positions. My coworker had mentioned she experienced an incident of oversharing and had to talk to our boss about it. Yet, little did I know her story would serve as advanced warning to what I would encounter a few days later when I was working with alone with another coworker. I consider myself a very friendly and compassionate person, which often lends itself to others sharing personal struggles with me, yet this sharing primarily occurs from my close friends and not in a work setting, so granted I was caught off-guard when my fellow employee began sharing some tragic family and life events with me while I was trying to complete a work task.

       While, it is important to acknowledge that he felt comfortable enough to share these personal struggles with me, it created an intense sense of responsibility for me because I was alone and also do not know this person well. My coworkers are primarily all college age, since I am working at a college setting, which I’ve learned can create difficult boundaries and relationship dynamics in the workplace. From my experience, I’d say my workplace should strive to avoid having two people work in a room alone one-on-one, which would create a better accountability system and prevent things from getting overly personal because you have more ears listening and may not feel as inclined to share. I think another goal, which I’ve spoken to my boss about is the need to more explicitly state what conversations are expected and tolerated in the work setting versus outside. While this may seem obvious and wouldn’t be a problem in some other work environments, it is definitely a larger challenge given the close age range and nature of the college setting. In addition, I think my boss and fellow coworkers should create and environment where we feel empowered to speak up if we feel that someone is pushing our boundaries.

     When it comes to workplace settings, navigating relationships is one of the most difficult aspects. Although many uncomfortable workplace scenarios depicted in Internship Class involved recognizing forms of sexual harassment, which is critical, I believe we must also talk about our mental and emotional boundaries when it is not sexual in nature. We must accept that it is okay to tell a coworker your boundaries in terms of what you are emotionally and mentally capable of handling in the workplace, which may require coworkers to re-evaluate the conversations they have and what they open up about leading to a more balanced workplace overall.