How nosy coworkers affect the dynamics of the workplace

We’ve all encountered nosy coworkers – the ones who always seem to appear just as you’re having a private chat. They ask questions that feel a little too personal. They linger by your desk a bit longer than necessary, just within earshot of your conversation or a glance at your screen.

Telling the difference between friendly interest and intrusive nosiness isn’t always easy. One person’s casual question can feel like a violation to someone else. Some people are open books, but others prefer to keep their personal lives to themselves.

That gap in expectations has made it tough for researchers to pin down when curiosity becomes a problem at work – until now.

A team of scientists from Boston University and the University of Central Florida has taken a hard look at workplace nosiness. They set out to answer a simple but tricky question: what does it really mean to be nosy at work?

Common traits of nosy coworkers

The research began with surveys of 350 young adults. Participants were asked to describe what nosiness looks like at work. How does it show up? How often does it happen? What does it feel like?

From there, the scientists ran four studies to identify common traits of nosy coworkers and build a scale to measure how intrusive someone might be – both in professional and personal ways.

The researchers categorized behaviors like frequent questioning, gossip, and pushing for private details into a framework that organizations can now use to track this kind of behavior.

A working definition of nosiness

One of the study’s key insights is that nosiness isn’t just what someone does. It’s also how their behavior is perceived.

“If you think of nosiness as a perception or an appraisal of someone else’s information-seeking behaviors, there’s a lot of individual variables – personality, hostile biases – that could determine why someone is more or less likely to perceive someone else as being nosy,” said Richard Currie, an organizational psychologist at Boston University.

In other words, it’s not always about intent. It’s about how it feels. The researchers settled on this working definition of nosiness: “employees’ intrusive attempts to obtain private information from others at work.”

“Defining nosiness is a really big step forward,” they explained. “We came to a firm definition of how it’s different from other related constructs – like social curiosity – that in and of themselves don’t necessarily have overly negative implications; nosiness does, so it truly is a distinct phenomenon.”

Nosiness: Less sharing and more stress

Once they nailed down how to measure nosiness, the next step was to test what it does to workplace culture. Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t help.

In organizations where nosiness is more common, employees are more likely to shut down. The study found they protect themselves by withholding information – even when that knowledge could help their team.

High levels of workplace intrusiveness correlated with increased stress and lower job performance.

“Employees react to nosiness by pulling down the shutters,” the researchers explained. They tighten their boundaries and share less with the people around them.

Nosy behavior in competitive workplaces

The experts also noticed another pattern: companies with a strong sense of internal competition tended to have more nosy behavior.

In environments where employees feel like they’re constantly being compared to each other or fighting for limited opportunities, they’re more likely to pry – and be on guard.

A further detail stood out: younger workers were more likely than older workers to report engaging in nosy behavior. That finding raises questions about how different generations approach privacy, both in giving and receiving personal information.

“Interestingly, we found that younger workers reported engaging in nosy behaviors more than older workers did,” Currie said.

“I find that to be a fascinating finding. I do wonder if that translates to generational differences – not only in your likelihood of engaging in nosiness or being appraised by others as being nosy, but also how you appraise and respond to others.”

When the boss gets nosy

The implications go beyond casual office gossip. The team behind the study also tested how nosiness from supervisors affects staff – especially in the field of hospitality, where the line between “professional” and “personal” often blurs.

“We found workers’ shared supervisor nosiness perceptions negatively impacted employee perceptions of interpersonal justice, which ultimately reduced their likelihood of engaging in knowledge-sharing behavior,” said Currie.

He also noted that when supervisors were more authentic and trusting, this weakened the negative relationship between nosiness and interpersonal justice, which led to more knowledge sharing.

So while being too curious can make staff feel uncomfortable, a leader who’s open and genuine can soften the blow.

The pressure to share

For the lead author from Boston University, this topic is personal. “I think we all have been in situations where others felt entitled to our feelings, ourselves in some way,” Currie said.

“What really sparked my interest in workplace privacy is this modern push for authenticity – it sounds healthy to bring your whole self to work, but it seems like it’s almost eroding boundaries between professional and personal lives.”

“That creates pressure, discomfort, perhaps burnout and stress – I wanted to explore that tension a little bit.”

The more we’re encouraged to show up as our “full selves” at work, the less clear it becomes what’s fair game for conversation. And that’s where nosiness creeps in.

Since starting this research, Currie admits he has become more mindful of his own behavior. “Being the nosiness researcher, you can’t be nosy,” he joked.

The topic has also made its way into his classroom, helping future managers think about how their own curiosity might be perceived by staff. Currie said that it is important for students to understand that people are really complex.

How do we deal with nosy coworkers?

The solution to dealing with nosy coworkers is still up for debate. “People are interesting and, naturally, all of us want to know more about the people we encounter regularly,” noted Currie.

“Sometimes, I find myself being overly curious about what others in my workplace and outside of work are doing, so I do keep in check my nosiness behaviors. But I’d also like to believe that I’m not policing others’ information-seeking.”

The full solution? That’s for future research to unpack. But in the meantime, knowing the line between curiosity and intrusion is a good place to start.

The full study was published in the journal Journal of Business and Psychology.

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