That was my “Aha!” moment on the lack of privacy in public spaces.
The 12-year-old was a girl who happened to be sitting next to me on a plane.I was working for Hewlett-Packard and trying to get some work done on my laptop; in this case, as it usually was, it was a not yet released product.She started asking questions.I responded with some to shift the conversation, and closed my laptop.
When you work for a top Fortune company, you learn to live with feeling like you’re wearing a big, visible target 24/7. Sure, I was careful in what I said in trade shows, on press tours, to business partners.From that moment on, I became that much more hyper-aware of it.Years before I’d learned a lesson the hard way about not even subtly mentioning in an emailed trip report an un-named co-worker’s lack of follow-though.My days of getting radically different judging scores on the same speech in tournaments only when I chose a controversial topic, were also clear indicators that my stance would likely be judged more than the quality of my communication.
In that way I’m at a bit of an advantage in the digital age… recognizing that what can be seen or heard is something one has to feel comfortable announcing to a current or prospective employer or customer.They may well be more concerned about how my personal beliefs and actions reflect on them and their company, than on my ability to do the job well.In fact I’ve broken off business relationships by others who struck me as so cavalier I simply chose to take my business elsewhere.
The reality is … those with the power, dictate the rules, ex check out
We can ignore it to our detriment, choose to be private about those communications that might hurt us publically, or try to change it.For the moment, my vote is to choose carefully what gets shared with whom, where, all the more so if it’s digital, as those footprints can go viral and last a long, long time.
