Does your boss know too much about you?

With so many people working from home and having online video meetings, we’ve gotten to know our colleagues differently. Like it or not, your boss now knows you even more than he did before the coronavirus. Does he know too much about you?

Confidentiality

Before the coronavirus crisis, you had control over what you shared with your colleagues or manager (e.g. during your lunch break). In many cases, the HR manager knows nothing more than your basic information such as your name, address, date of birth, and bank account number.

Due to the increase in working from home, we unconsciously share more information than we would like with our work colleagues. During a video conference, your work environment says a lot about your personality and living environment. When you work from home, the separation between work and private life is not always clearly defined and your interlocutors are unintentionally confronted with a glimpse into your private life. This approach may be experienced by some of us as an invasion of privacy.

What's happening at home...

Giving away too much information about yourself can make you vulnerable as an employee. And yet, there is no reason to panic. Due to the coronavirus crisis, employers have just become more human: they too – just like you – have had to quickly adapt to new ways of working, whether or not they are casually dressed in front of a laptop in a makeshift workspace.

Mutual trust is the key to successful and respectful cooperation between both parties. And that warm background during an online meeting? You can fix it by setting the one of your choice during your online conversations. This way, what happens at home will simply stay at home.