Ladies, we love to share and the things that interest us will have equal appeal to others, right?

Wrong. Now and again, we carry this erroneous belief into the work place and it works against us. It does nothing for our credibility, it does not boost our professional image nor does it support our career aspirations.

I fall into the category of ladies who love to share the oh-so-cute story of my child’s latest milestone. This in itself is not a bad thing but it could get too much – especially in the workplace. People’s interest in your stories could be feigned or short lived at best, and you could actually be boring their socks off with your unsolicited updates. It’s human nature to want to share but please, let’s spare our listeners the embarrassingly minute word for word details of the ungodly row we had with our spouse yesterday.

The audience should definitely be kept in mind when letting it rip. Lengthy stories can be a tad boring to the general populace. Besides, people will generally never be as impressed as you would wish them to be, no matter how much you embellish. And yes, no matter what you say, they still think their child is cuter and smarter than yours.

Ever had a battle of the stories with a colleague or a friend? You know, the one who can hardly wait for you to be done your boring story so that she can interject with her own story, which you might in turn find as interesting as watching nail grow. For Pete’s sakes, let’s free our colleagues from the boring repeats of our “exciting” sagas that pertain to day care struggles, stretch marks, breast pumps and weaning your baby (I am so guilty of the last one).

To act upon our inherent desire to share, we should (must) find a select group of like-minded story-sharers and then take turns swapping our funny and sometimes gruesome details – in private.

In a corporate setting, no matter how informal things appear to be, you do not want to overload your audience with excessive personal information. It’s simply not in your best interest to do so. Noone cares anyway.

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Congratulations to the Women of HR community for reaching the one year milestone! May the new year hold for loads of pleasant surprises for everyone !

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