Commonly, it's used when people forward lewd jokes or crude videos to their friends. And considering that millions of us read our personal email at work, the NSFW tag can and does help to save people from embarrassment in front of their co-workers or supervisor.

The Perils of Being an Oversharer

I’m a bit of an oversharer. I’m constantly whining about my kids, my husband, my car, politics… everything. I talk too fast. And I have occasionally, without meaning to, ended up stumbling into areas of my life I really shouldn’t have with a co-worker.

But I’ve also been on the flipside of oversharing. Take the woman in my office who wanted to be my Facebook friend. I thought, sure, why not? That is, until I saw her half-nude profile photo and decided against it. It made me feel awkward.

Working out where the boundaries lie can be a bit of a minefield. Modern work practices and our addiction to social media have blurred the line between the personal and the professional.

No doubt, your work bestie will be dying to hear all the juicy details of your weekend, but your boss is a different story. Sharing the wrong kind of information with the wrong person could lead to irreparable reputational damage, not to mention a lifetime of embarrassment. It may even cost you your job.

Safe to Share or Not?

My advice? Consider the following five factors when you’re going to share something with your team.

1. Types of Content

Never share anything racist, homophobic, sexist, or prejudiced in any other way. That doesn’t make for a safe working environment for anyone.

If it’s a risqué joke or a video that contains strong political views, it’s best to set out clearly to your recipients what they can expect with a NSFW tag.

As Olivia Nuzzi, Political Reporter for The Daily Beast, put it, “Dance like no one is watching. Email like it may one day be read aloud in a deposition.”

2. Read the Room

However, tagging your content NSFW doesn’t automatically make it OK to share.

Ask yourself, is the person you’re sharing with going to “get” it? Or, are they going to be offended or hurt by it? If the answer is the latter, move your finger away from that share button!

Chances are, you have like-minded people at work with a similar sense of humor. They’ll most likely take whatever you share with them in the way it was intended. But if you’re uncertain about how someone might react, it’s probably best to avoid sharing that content.

3. Pick the Right Channel

With chatrooms like Slack, Campfire and Google Hangouts popular tools for team collaboration, remember those messages are kept on a server somewhere. They are just as retrievable as emails, and could be shared on, well beyond your intended audience.

So, tread cautiously. Use personal and private accounts to keep control.

4. Boundaries

We all have different boundaries. What's NSFW also depends on the culture and policies of the workplace. And times change; what might have been acceptable in the 1980s may not be now. It might even be illegal!

A simple test for gauging today’s appropriacy is to ask yourself, “What would my HR manager or my customer think if I sent them this?”

5. Privacy and Confidentiality

Anything that breaches confidentiality or impinges on someone else’s privacy, as well as being NSFW, spells TROUBLE.

Mindlessly forwarding stuff you're sent, without thinking how it might impact other people or your company, is at best reckless. At worst, it's an act that could get you fired, or your company sued.

NSFW: Repairing the Damage

If the worst happens and your heart sinks with the dawning realization that you have, indeed, made a serious error of judgment, don’t panic. Take a deep breath and prepare to face up to the situation. There’s no hiding from it.

If it warrants it, get advice from your HR department. Get them involved, to mediate and, hopefully, help you to find a way to limit the damage. They’ve seen it all before. And it's better that you look for them than they look for you!

Whatever the case, one thing you must do is to apologize directly yourself. And quickly. Take full responsibility and acknowledge the impact your mistake may have had on affected parties.

The way you respond to your mistake will say a lot about you.

What's Next?

Being professional doesn’t mean you can’t have fun! Friends in the workplace offer countless benefits, to you and the company. But there is a line between friendship and work.

Our article, Professionalism takes you through the eight characteristics of professionalism and how to exhibit them. It’ll help you to know when it’s safe to share or when you should hold back.

And, if you have overstepped the line, see our articles How to Apologize and Making Amends for ways you can make it up to colleagues. Your reputation is a fragile thing, and rebuilding it requires patience and for you to take the right steps. See our article, Recovering Your Reputation, to find the path back to your previous standing.

Tip of the Week

It's not too late to plan for Christmas!

By Matthew Hughes, Mind Tools Content Editor

Wherever you are in the world, there are certain times of the year when more people are taking time off than usual. Christmas and New Year are just two of those occasions. And they’re just around the corner.

They might be a great opportunity for employees to unwind and take a well-earned break. But when so many people are off work, it can lead to overload for remaining staff, miscommunication, and things going wrong.

Over the years, I’ve learned the hard way that you need to do one thing above all else: plan.

Doing a quick risk analysis will highlight any potential problems. If you’re a manager, get your people together to share their concerns and insights so you don’t miss anything. Then double check (or create) contingency plans and make sure the team knows about them!

Having a good idea of the issues created when people are off, and having solid plans in place ahead of time, will go a long way toward making any time off worthwhile.

Pain Points Podcast

Speaking of seasonal pressures, this week’s podcast takes a deeper look at what you can do when your headcount is low. From Christmas to Thanksgiving and Diwali, sometimes the workplace is going to be low staffed.

Join the team as they discuss seasonal pressures – and share tips and tricks for getting through them without work falling behind.

Subscribe Today

News Roundup

This Week's Global Workplace Insights

Could A.I. set us free?

“A.I. optimism” is on the rise, and a new report from the think tank Autonomy has arrived at a potentially game changing conclusion.

According to the report, 28 million U.S. and British workers could see their working hours reduced from 40 to 30 hours thanks to productivity gains from A.I.

The theory is that if large language models are implemented to augment and aid millions of existing roles, this could free up time for workers and improve work-life balance.

Of course, many are worried about the potential for layoffs from A.I., but Autonomy are one of many voices painting a more positive picture of working in a world of artificial intelligence.

Whatever the outcome, A.I. is here to stay, and governments and businesses need to develop strategies to adapt working practices creatively, safely and fairly.

Creating company values that stick

Do your company’s values resonate with you? Do you even know what they are?

In a new piece for Harvard Business Review, Professors Shawn Pope and Arild Wæraas have argued that organizations are creating their values all wrong.

The authors propose starting from scratch and making values that “pop” so that employees remember them. Here are their five tips for making memorable values:

• Be creative. Explore alternative formats, like company mottos or credos.
• Keep them brief. Limit them to four, maximum.
• Make them easy to remember. List them in order of importance and consider creating a mnemonic.
• Use distinctive language. Make them engaging, bold and exciting.

They believe taking these steps will change how employees engage with an organization’s core values – for the good of everyone.

See Mind Tools’ article, Understanding Organizational Culture, for more on how to shape workplace culture. And our article, What Are Your Values? to help you to explore and define what drives you personally.

See you next week for more member-exclusive content and insight from the Mind Tools team!