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You have probably made friends at the office, and you guys talk about everything. You want to become friends, and the best way to do that is to get to know each other. But what are some things that you should never say to a co-worker?

This advice comes from Liz Ryan, a contributor to Forbes for career advice. Here are the ten things she says you should never, ever tell to your co-workers.

You can access her article here.

 

1. That You Hate Your Job

If you tell your co-workers that you hate your job, it will only bring in a bunch of negativity that they don’t need. The world is negative enough. Some of your co-workers may really love their jobs and could be upset that you think the job sucks. It’s their life, and they probably don’t want to hear you talk bad about it.

 

2. Don’t Tell Your Co-Workers That You Dislike Your Manager

If you talk bad about your manager to a coworker it could spread around and because you are the source, you could get in trouble. It’s not very likely that your friend would tell the manager that you dislike them, but if word spreads and someone is trying to get an advantage on you, they will use what you said as leverage against you.

 

3. Don’t Tell Anyone You are Job Hunting

Again, if you talk about your job hunt and how it is going, then that could create some chaos in the office. Liz says that “you can tell your coworkers when you accept a new position. Until then, say nothing.”

 

4. Don’t Tell Coworkers About Your Financial Situation

Telling coworkers about how well or how poor you are doing is not going to go well. If you are doing well, then some coworkers may get jealous and think they deserve a raise or think that you are making more money than them. If you are struggling at the moment then its likely that people will talk about it around the office. You don’t want to people gossiping about your financial situation or what steps you are taking to become debt free.

 

5. Don’t Tell Your Coworkers That You Are Better Than Your Job

If you believe that you are working a job that is not challenging you enough or that is too easy for you try to not talk about it. You may hurt a coworkers feelings because they will assume that you are better than them and other people around the office may talk badly about you. They may not think you are better than that job because of jealousy or resentment and try to drag you down. Don’t give them the opportunity to do that. If you really feel that you could get a better, more challenging job, then try your best and don’t let anyone hurt the dreams you are trying to full fill for yourself.

6. Don’t Talk About Career Plans if They Mean Leaving That Job

Talking about your future plans that don’t involve the company could make your manager feel like you are not doing your best. It could incline them to feel like you are slacking off or that you don’t care about the job you have even though you do because those plans are just future plans.

 

7. If You are Dating a Coworker, Keep it Hush

If the relationship builds to the point that it’s serious and pretty stable, then it’s okay to tell your coworkers. Make sure that you also let your manager know who you are dating and that it is serious. If your company has a no dating policy, then you should adhere to the policy, so you don’t lose your job.

 

8. Don’t Tell Your Coworkers That Headhunters Call You Frequently

If you are in doing well in your career and getting job offers from other companies, then don’t tell your coworkers. Liz says that “It’s no one’s business but yours, and if your teammates aren’t getting calls from recruiters they might get jealous. That would not be good for your team’s mojo!”

 

9. Don’t Talk About Breaking the Rules

If you are breaking company rules, don’t talk about it to your coworkers. This could come back to bite you in the butt when its time for a raise or a promotion. You don’t want that, and your coworkers don’t need to know. The example used in the article is “taking a sick day when you are not really sick” so if you are doing things like this then don’t talk about it. If you feel that you are breaking a lot of company rules because you are unhappy, then it may be time for a new job. But remember to keep the job hunt to yourself.

 

10. Don’t Talk About Your Plan to Transfer to Another Department

What Liz said here is perfect, so I am just going to quote her.

“Keep quiet about your plans to transfer to another department. Somebody in your work group will have a bad day before long and that’s when they will tell your manager ‘Guess who wants to leave your department, and hasn’t told you?'”

The overall goal of not talking about these things is to try and ensure that you have a happy and healthy work environment. People sabotage themselves at work all the time and its best to not do that. Especially if you are applying for other jobs. Its good to not bash or talk negatively about the company you worked for because then the hiring manager will thing that you would do the same to that company.

One last piece of advice that she shares is that it depends on the company you work for.

“The healthier your environment, the less you have to worry about a stray comment making its way to the wrong person’s ears and causing you strife.

The worse the environment, the more tight-lipped you have to be with your coworkers.

If things get so bad at your workplace that you can’t safely talk about much beyond the weather, that’s a sure sign it’s time to go!”

I hope that you enjoyed this article and let us know what you think in the comments!

If you haven’t heard of Gary Vaynerchuk, then you may be missing out on some great advice for your life and business. On top of being a successful entrepreneur, he is also a social media influencer and is commonly known for arbitraging the market with his social ideas. If you are not looking to become an entrepreneur that is totally fine! But I wanted to talk about a video he created about The Greatest Years of Your Life, What to do After College; and I believe that what he has to say is really important, so I wanted to share some of the ideas he talks about in the video.

If you want to access the video, you can watch it below (he does use vulgar language so be prepared for a few swear words).

 

These Next 5-Years Are the Easiest (and Greatest) in Your Life

He states that after college or around age 22 that these are the easiest years of your life. Yes you may have student loans, car loans, and those things are tough, but you are not nearly tied down as much as you will be when you are 40. You don’t have kids yet, you don’t have a family to take care of, and you don’t have a house payment. You aren’t married yet and you don’t have a bunch of promises to fulfill. Some 20-year-old’s do have some of these responsibilities, but for the most part, most of you don’t have these limitations yet. So now is the time to take risks and follow your passions! Create the job you want to do for yourself so the next 40 years you are working you will love your work life.

If you don’t know what you love or what you are passionate about that is okay. Instead of letting that get you down, you should let that empower you. It’s okay not to know! In fact, it’s great not to know because you can start at ground 0 with what you want to do. You probably see friends getting married and buying houses, but they don’t have something that you do. You have the opportunity to create the work life you want for yourself. You don’t have shackles keeping you tied into jobs you don’t love. You have a rare and powerful opportunity.

“This is exactly when you can live with four roommates in a basement and eat fast food.”
-Gary Vaynerchuk

You can live for dirt cheap by having a ton of roommates and living in a cheap apartment. Still try to live in a safe neighborhood, but you can find cheap rent. Take the extra money you make to travel and follow your passions. If you live an inexpensive life you can afford to work part time and spend the rest of your time doing what you love and something you are good at. You can also use that extra time to create a career for yourself, start a band, start a blog of your wildlife photos and if you do these things you may become popular. If people love your work then you have the opportunity to grow and create new business experiences for yourself. If that doesn’t happen then try a new passion that you love. You have the power to do this at this age because not being tied down is the greatest opportunity you have and you have the time to do these things.

 

Attack the Life You Want to Win

He starts by saying that you are in the best 5-year window of your lives. If you are 22 and just graduating from college or even 22 and didn’t go to college that this is the time to attack what you love and do what you want to do. This is the time to work your butt off because you can pull those 18 hour days to create the life that you want for yourself!

What are you really passionate about? What do you want to do every single day for the rest of your life? Once you figure out what that thing is, learn how to turn it into a business. Read articles, learn how to differentiate yourself from people in that industry and work towards the life you want to create for yourself.

Everyone comes up with these great ideas, but the ideas are not converted from ideas to processes. They are just ideas that get lost in the world of endless dreams. To make your dreams come true, you need to turn ideas into processes. You need to show up every single day and do it. You need to create and document and learn to make your dreams happen.

“What you should do is go and travel and learn. Go and start that business you always wanted. Hook up with those teammates you always wanted and start that band.”
-Gary Vaynerchuk

That being said, it’s not going to be easy.

“The current state of entrepreneurship seems like a party, popular, cool, but it’s literally everything but those things.”
-Gary Vaynerchuk

That’s because you need to work and work hard to achieve the dream life you want. It’s not going to just happen for you.

 

LIFE IS HARD; THE WORLD IS HARDER

The world is a hard place. It creates fear and self-esteem issues driven by the need for money that we all have. It tends to drain our confidence and leave us feeling miserable at times. These years need to be the best times in your life because this is when it will be the easiest to accomplish the goals you have for yourself.

Stop caring about what other people think about you. Figure out who you really are, not who you want to become, and what you want to do. Once you know these things then you can become humble and learn.

 

I Wish You the Best of Luck

We can afford to set the foundation for our work lives for the next 40 years. We can set up the processes now and chase the dreams we want. This is the incredible opportunity that we have, and if we don’t take advantage of it, then we are not going to get a chance like this again. We don’t have the baggage which gives us the power to choose what we want to do and work hard for it.

I’ll say it again, don’t throw away this incredible opportunity that you have. You probably don’t know what you want to do with your work-life yet so take this opportunity to create the work life for yourself and set the foundation for your future self. If EVERYTHING you have tried fails, then you can always get another job. You won’t regret giving it a try; you’ll regret not doing it.