Everyone has things about them that they don't necessarily want their employer to know. Generally, one wants their employer to know as little about one's home life as possible without making one appear to be psychotic. This is a difficult balance to strike at times, particularly if you happen to be a geek like me.
Quick aside: I play Dungeons and Dragons every week. I'm the treasurer for VCU's literary society. In addition to blogging about my favorite board games, I love going to conventions and renaissance faires.
As Meriah is fond of saying: honesty is not always the best policy. While I'd never lie about who I am or what I enjoy doing, I don't want every boss of mine to know the extent of my geeky-ness.
Why? For the same reason that one normally wouldn't want to disclose a health condition, history of drug abuse, or domestic problem unless you are legally required to do so: your employer may discriminate against you if they know.
It may sound like I'm overreacting, but I'm not. Should I ever enter government service, I could be denied security clearance (effectively fired) just for playing D&D. Even though my hobby is as harmless as any, it has a lot of baggage associated with it that I need to be aware of.
Of course, it's not always possible to keep the secret. One time I actually got caught mid-game by some people I worked with. While I wasn't elated to be "outed", I didn't have much to worry about. Most people don't actually care what I do with my free time, but then again, some do, and some of those people have power.
For this reason, I usually don't mention what I do with my free time.
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5 comments:
I think you make a very god point about how it's good to separate parts of your home life from your work life. I think it also depends on the type of environment you work in as well, if you work in a more strutured business environment where you aren't very close with your co-workers, then it is good to keep more parts of your life private. But,as for me, my work environment is more casual with my co-workers. We've all known each other in various capacities for years and we are all good friends, so we definitely share more with one another than you would with random co-worker in the cubicle across from yours. It's definitely something you need to judge for yourself according to your own work environment.
I have a story that is very similar to this. My aunt works and attends classes at ODU. One of her professors is also one of her friends.But my aunt has worked hard to keep their friendship and professional relationship of student-teacher separate. They are friends on facebook but my aunt has made sure to never talk to her about class via fb. One day my aunt noticed the friend had made her status something about the grades on a recent paper they turned in, mentioning that a lot of the students did poorly. My aunt sent her a message jokingly saying she hopes her grade wasn't one of the ones she was talking about. Well, the teacher responded with a lengthy letter telling her how awful of a student she was and so on and so forth. The point of this rant is that you have to be very careful when you mix your professional life and personal life. While I agree with Alyssa that you have to judge for yourself because each work environment is different, you also have to keep in mind that as human beings, we turn on each other. It's a dog eat dog world unfortunately and if you make the wrong move, or piss the wrong person off, what was once a fun friendship in the workplace can be used against you. Wow, that sounds so cynical.
I think thats terrible that you would have problems because of a video game. But I definitely understand being stereotyped like that. Why would D&D affect getting a job with the government however? I think its terrible that society still does this to people, I mean I even get this when people find out I read comics. They always think something terrible has to be wrong with me or they assume something immediately because of my blonde hair. I wish something could be done about this, but I know it probably will always happen somehow.
hopefully you will one day be in a work environment where others will understand you my good baron.
i think it's important to work with people you feel comfortable around. If your co-workers are going to shun you for playing dungeons and dragons then they probably don't share your opinions about alot of other things. then again if they don't shun you for playing dnd then they might shun you for being a psionic and call you a cheater.
if your personal life doesn't revolve around a "problem" then maybe you don't want to work in a place where you would be considered a freak. for critical success at work remember, be natural 20
Very true, work and personal life should be kept separate. Some people do judge other people unfairly but then if what you do outside your job does not interfere with it, then that's your business. I do understand though that there are times when the personal crosses over to the work place. For an obvious example, at my last job, a co-worker would literally have alchohol breath each time I or someone talk with him about work-related issues. As it was getting increasingly evident, that worker was soon sent on his way after repeated chances given to change his ways IN the workplace. As for your D&D work issue, as long as you don't play D&D in the office, I think it's cool. BUT who doesn't go online/play games at work ;p
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