>As a manager, if I share details about my personal life it encourages others on the team to do the same. It works if you are a good manager and the sharing ha

>As a manager, if I share details about my personal life it encourages others on the team to do the same. It works if you are a good manager and the sharing happens naturally. The manager I referred to would always share details of his personal life that were really bragging, which of course created a horrible environment for sharing. A good manager would share and then see which employees want to share back and which did not. They would shape future discussions accordingly. As an employee, I've had some managers who like to talk about their personal life and others who do not. As an employee I've never started my 1:1s by sharing my personal life every single time and expecting my manager to do the same when it's clear they don't want to talk about it. But due to power dynamics, bad managers can do that sort of thing and be oblivious to how uncomfortable their employees feel about it.