Should you share your technical expertise, goals, or accomplishments at work? Yes! Share a caricature of your boss or love letter from an office romance, however, and you might soon need to share your resume. Here are some tips for avoiding such career-limiting moves.

IOO_031009_clm

Perhaps your team is using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 or another program to share information online.

You might have a My Site, which is a great place to track information, promote your expertise, and find others with similar interests. You can use privacy settings to control which categories of people get to see what, in case there’s information that you don’t want everyone to see.

Some files are less safe for work than others, though, so you might keep them offline or at home, especially if you think you might forget the privacy settings. Here’s a short list:

  • Your cover letter for another job opening
  • List of reasons you hate your job/boss/co-workers
  • Order for shoes, tunes, or whatever you buy when you should be working
  • Your “I’m outta here” manifesto (that you’re saving up for your last day)
  • The “office pool” worksheet where your buddies bet on your manager’s last day
  • Caricature of your boss that you doodled during a boring meeting
  • Latest standings in your favorite online game
  • Recent letter from a torrid office romance
  • Business plan for your other job (that you do during office hours)
  • Your tax return

For tips on good information to share about yourself, see Michael Sampson’s 10 Tips on Establishing Your Profile in SharePoint My Site. For a head start, your organization can use My Site templates for some common professional roles.

Another area where professional and personal worlds can collide is your calendars. You can connect your SharePoint calendar to Microsoft Outlook, which is a handy way to track team vacations and events along with your own appointments. You can even overlay your team calendar with your personal calendar or view them side-by-side.

Just remember which one is which, though, and don’t accidentally post your personal appointments to the team calendar. This is especially true if your appointments have juicy titles.

Some examples are “Meet with psychiatrist to discuss crazy cube mate” or “Attend Job Fair so I can get the heck out of here.” Another word of warning is to avoid sharing a personal event, such as a fishing trip with buddies, on a day that you called in sick.

Have you stumbled across situations where co-workers shared a bit too much? Do you have tips for sharing (and not sharing) information online? Let us know. Thanks,

Toni

Like this post? Share it!