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It came up a lot in terms of how people thought about these questions. They um you know they might be very comfortable
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uh connecting with peers but then very uncomfortable connecting across levels. And one of the funniest things to me was
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when we would talk to people about this a lot of times they would equate connecting with somebody on you know
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connecting with a boss on something like Facebook or Instagram as as equivalent to connecting with their mother. Right?
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It was sort of the same horror that some that they would they would express as they talked about those relationships.
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All right. So then how should both companies and the employees think about that process because there are some
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dynamics that probably could get a little tricky along the way. Absolutely. I mean, I think that um a lot of
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companies, for example, have social media policies um and it's not necessarily who you're
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connecting with typically, but more uh what you are posting or you know, you know, are you allowed to post stuff
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about work or about people at work or sometimes it is about who you're allowed
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to connect with, right? So that there's no conflicts of interest. Um, and so
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there are policies that some organizations have, but what I would also say is that connecting on social
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media is also a way of just, you know, especially throughout the last couple of years where we've engaged in more remote
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work, more hybrid work. It's also an opportunity to know what's going on in
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people's lives, right? So just banning it entirely may not be the right approach. One has to think about
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judiciously how do how how do you who do you connect with and what do you disclose to them and you know what is
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that relationship that you're willing to cross that boundary so that you're
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willing to blur the line between professional and personal. Well, one of the things I found interesting is that
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you also talk about this element of self-disclosure and the fact that that can kind of ease and better the
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opportunity to have a relationship or a friendship outside of the office when somebody is maybe talking about their
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kids or talking about the traffic or you know some component outside of what would normally be discussed in terms of
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the business. Absolutely. I think that one of the things that we found in the study is that people will be much more
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comfortable connecting to other people who disclose personal information, right? And it doesn't have to be deeply
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intimate personal information, right? By the way, cute dog pics are a are a very
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very hot commodity. And you know, if you have a cute dog and you want to post pictures of them, that's a that's a a
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very good strategy. Um because people always love them and they feel like they know you and they they feel connected to
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you and they it gives them a sense of warmth that you're displaying. Um and a
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feeling that they they know something about you that's important and that's
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you know not fake, you know, or surface level. And so that personal disclosure really helps to create a bond between
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you and your fellow co-workers. Thank you for listening to the Ripple Effect. We hope you found this episode
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informative and engaging. Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review so
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that we can continue to bring you the best insight from the Warden School.