My co-worker specifically authorized someone here to disclose the information about his surgery. No one shared information that they were not legally or morally allowed to share.

And I think I'm going to have to step away from the rest of this discussion.

It wasn't clear in your original post that your co-worker authorized an email.

I am just a private person, in general, and get really upset if I am the subject of gossip. And I think that co-workers speculating about my personal medical concerns is pretty much just gossip.

And I think that co-workers speculating about my personal medical concerns is pretty much just gossip.

I think most coworkers would discuss it out of concern, and it also probably differs from office to office.

When I quit my last job to move up here, I was surprised to have a lot of people talking to me about how sad it was that my father has Alzheimer's. I was pissed that it was apparently being generally discussed around senior management, and then realized it was the story my boss could tell (to herself and others) about why I was leaving that didn't reflect on her. @@

Great news, Jen.

My theory is that coworkers are going to talk, regardless, and if they don't have the correct information, they're going to make stuff up.

Plus some of them come into your office and want to hug you.

A "no hugs" policy is important.

My theory is that coworkers are going to talk, regardless, and if they don't have the correct information, they're going to make stuff up.

I seem to be, so far, out of those loops. We had a developer take a month off and the closest I heard was "It was a long time, so I guess it was medical?" And if she has been Indian, I don't know if anyone would have gotten as far as medical. I don't know, maybe they do talk about my absences, what with the from-home working above average and everything, but I've never heard them do it about anyone else.

A "no hugs" policy is important.

Indeed. Well, at work for me, anyway.

Thanks again, all.

I just slapped together a list of ten personal goals for the new year. I only put how much and by when type stuff in a couple, so they're pretty vague, but I can flesh them out more as I go. Not resolutions so much as "things I've been thinking about and never writing down so I could continue to basically ignore them."

A lot of it hinges in one way or another on getting my financial house in order. Except for the reading (have library card, will borrow!) and cleaning (have supplies... don't clean that much!), so I guess I've just determined what #1 goal printed out and bolded is, eh?

That's progress, right??

I don't do hugs at work and my co-workers include my closest non-nuclear family relative and someone who's been a friend since 1988.

Got too busy at work this morning to post when it was still timely, but I found out that randomly thinking about Stephen King's It while showering and then having the drain give an abnormally loud grating gurgle just as you replay Tim Curry's voice saying "Ohh yes... They Float Georgie... They Float..." in your head will result in more wakefulness than the standard issue morning shower normally provides.