Can too much respect be bad?

[EgoDeath]

I may be a little looser with my decorum with my co worker than my boss. But there's not a joke I wouldn't tell to my coworker that I haven't told to my boss. There's not a status update or incident I've spoken with co workers about hat I haven't spoken to my boss about, even when the topic is my boss.

I think I tie respect to respecting another person's time. I respect my boss more than some people so I'm more frugal with his time and keep away from the frivolity I can be prone to. I don't consider that being less honest, just being a better steward of our time because of the respect. Same applies to other people in other areas of my life I respect. What do you correlate respect with?

So, are there jokes you know that you wouldn't tell your coworker? Maybe the issue isn't that you withhold from your boss, but rather than you withhold from everyone. Unless you're sitting there at your computer trying to convince me that you are 100% yourself and 100% honest and direct with everyone you come into contact with, regardless of context, power dynamic, social pressures, and everything else.... in that case, you're certainly one unique human being. They should study you in a lab somewhere.

So, like I said, it sounds good, I just don't buy it.

As I said before, respect is, to me, observing someone's personal boundaries, honesty, and having a sense of admiration for that person. Granted, I think respect can, like almost anything else, exist on a spectrum. I would not say I respect my boss, so much as I understand the power dynamic between us. The reason I say this is I don't necessarily have any sense of admiration for my boss, nor am I necessarily honest with them all of the time. Nor do I feel I should be honest with them all of the time. Sometimes, honesty will hurt you more than it will help you; that's a simple fact of life. One that's unfortunate, in some ways, but true nonetheless.

I would say that I respect my bosses personal boundaries, in the same way I respect anyone else's personal  boundaries. I'm not going to shove someone out of my way at a supermarket, I'm simply going to say, "Excuse me," and walk around them.