In my just-published book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers Finding and Succeeding at a Job Living with a Mental Illness I give clear pros and cons of disclosing on the job.

This July 2022 I cohosted a Zoom workshop on Editorializing Lived Experience. The question arose: When does being honest veer into TMI–giving too much information?

As an Author and Advocate who keeps 3 different blogs I advance keeping private the things you don’t want to tell others. Nor should you tell others everything if you ask me.

Other bloggers rack up 15 or 16 “likes” with their kiss-and-tell blog entries. On the job it’s dice-y dishing about the details of your diagnosis.

In an ideal workplace coworkers would be free to get and receive support for whatever issue we’re facing whether emotional or otherwise.

The fact is what you tell one coworker might not be kept confidential between the two of you. I’m aware of a situation where another coworker was vocal in a public area about what one person told them in private.

This is the reality. Word gets around whether you want it to or not.

This is a decision we all face: what to reveal and what to keep private.

My preference is to choose carefully what I post in my blogs and what I tell people at work.

How do you feel about this?