Talking about how much you earn has long been considered a workplace faux pas. But some behavior can be even worse.
Worrying about how stressed you are — sometimes known as “busy bragging” — can make you seem uninformed and unattractive to your coworkers, according to a recent study from the University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business.
The researchers asked a panel of 360 participants to respond to statements from their thinking colleagues who had just returned from a conference.
Another statement was an example of busy bragging, where a co-worker complained that the conference was “just one thing on my full plate. And I was already stressed until the end … you don’t know the stress I’m under.
In another statement, a co-worker said that work has been stressful lately. A third colleague described how enjoyable the conference was and did not complain about the pressure.
The boastful co-worker was viewed as less desirable and more inappropriate than the other two co-workers. In addition, the survey respondents said that they would not be willing to help those who are busy with work.
In a summary of the findings, Jessica Rodell, the study’s lead author and a professor of management at UGA’s Terry College of Business, says:
“People hurt themselves by doing this thing they think will make them look better to their colleagues.”
The researchers also interviewed 218 employees about their real experiences with busybodies, and the results were similar to those of the first survey.
However, employees describing real interactions at work added that listening to busy bragging leaves them feeling tired and stressed.
Rodell says such feelings may be the result of how busy bragging creates the impression that chronic levels of stress are a normal part of everyday life at work. In short, he says:
“If someone is always talking and bragging about their depression, it makes it seem like depression is a good thing. It just spills over to the co-worker next to them. They end up feeling stressed, which leads to extreme fatigue or withdrawal from their work. Think of this as a highly contagious effect from one person to another.”
It’s worth noting that those who just complained about stress — but not in a boastful way — didn’t cause such a negative reaction, Rodell says. In fact, those who claim to be depressed actually appear to be capable, he says.
In addition, those who simply complained about their stress level did not cause their co-workers to feel stressed.
The findings suggest that boasting about stress levels — not self-reported stress — turns coworkers off.
Rodell says stressed employees should not shy away from confiding in others about how they feel. Instead, they should avoid wearing pressure as a “badge of honor to brag about – it will backfire.”
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