[The Good News Project] Nosy Coworkers Can Spike Your Stress Levels

They’re a common office menace: the nosy coworker. They read over shoulders, loiter as friends chitchat, ask uncomfortable personal questions. It can be tempting to duck for cover whenever you see them heading your way.

But separating the prying and obtrusive from the merely curious and concerned can be challenging. What one person considers nosy, another might think is friendly; some people are open books, others like to keep their personal lives private.

Those blurry lines aren’t just issues for the 9-to-5 crowd to navigate, they’ve been a thorny problem for researchers studying intrusive behavior and employees’ privacy boundaries.

Until now, says Boston University organizational psychologist Richard A. Currie, there’s been no reliable way to measure, or even define, workplace nosiness, making it hard to track its potentially negative effects.

Learn about Professor Currie’s Latest Research

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