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Comment by trogdor | Hacker News Reader

I’m not sure that your experience should be generalized to a broad rule against volunteering “any information about yourself to anyone in the office beyond what is required to complete your job.”

I used to work in finance. Volunteering personal information about myself led to a close friendship with the CFO of the bank I worked for. I did good work, but so did many other people. The CFO and I got along so well only because we connected as people — mostly based on our personal lives and shared interests. My relationship with that person rocketed my career forward.

I don’t mean to take away from your experience. It sucks. But volunteering personal information can be beneficial.

Your risk tolerance should factor into the decision. The story above happened very early on in my career, shortly out of college. Taking those risks, to me, at the time, was totally worth it.

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> I’m not sure that your experience should be generalized to a broad rule against volunteering “any information about yourself to anyone in the office beyond what is required to complete your job.”

While I don't have IT experience, I can tell you as someone that both worked as an electrician and a FiOs technician that I also assumed that honesty reflects well on people and would be careful not to discourage it. I started at Verizon at like age 20 with that attitude and had no record and seldom anything to hide.

I learned fast that the policy of managers in both companies was, "Encourage narratives that honesty will always result in a better outcome to all employees... And for those stupid enough to believe it, punish them severely because only when they're honest do we know with certainty they're guilty."

First time I was questioned by management at Verizon, I made sure I was ambiguous in a way that made them think I was guilty. They said I was fired immediately and I said, "I'm fired? For what? I wasn't even in the truck. I told you what happened and I told you I was up a pole. The bucket truck was 2 blocks away when I saw it all."

Their faces turned white as they realized that I can tell everyone it's a lie and they can't just dismiss me as disgruntled for getting fired.

>First time I was questioned by management at Verizon, I made sure I was ambiguous in a way that made them think I was guilty.

Why did you do that?

My objective was to figure out whether their "always be honest" mantra they preached to employees had even a shred of merits. All I did was explain it in a way that didn't mention that I was not in any way in the vehicle, but performed hand gestures that would imply I was. The whole meeting was being typed out for records sake and I knew the fact that I wasn't, once revealed, would render them helpless. Especially because the policy of documenting who had each vehicle meant to go after employees, could also be used to demonstrate that I wasn't guilty, even if they chose to lie.

Another thing to consider is that the outcome (which is the one I wanted) resulted in me having them by the balls. I could repeat it to them as retribution in front of other employees with records to back it up and even in front of higher management to demonstrate how grossly incompetent they are.

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