Downloading the inside scoop on office personnel and discussing inner workings of the office with a new colleague can backfire or be helpful depending on the motives for sharing the scoop in the first place.
Source: Harvard Business Review, June 17, 2016.
‘If it’s information that everybody who works there already knows, that’s fine. But if it’s sharing privileged information, that’s not a good thing,’ says Judith White. You don’t know what your new colleague might tell others, exposing you and possibly damaging your reputation. Dattner suggests a simple rule to follow when walking the line between helping out your new colleague and undermining you both: “Do it as if everybody was listening.”