I have a colleague from another country (more expressive culture, not stuff upper lipped Brit) but I won't say where in case outing.
A number of times now this (fairly senior) colleague has overshared about personal difficulties (divorce, family crisis) in inappropriate forums. I'm not talking about meeting with manager or HR, I mean on client calls, wider team calls and on Teams chats with lots of junior team members.
HR and management are aware and trying to help with difficulties and adjustments that need to be made but have now had to issue a warning about the oversharing as its reached new levels in recent days.
Part of me found their candour and openess refreshing although in front of clients I did cringe. I wondered if some of this is cultural - do certain cultures share this kind of thing openly at work and are we just uncomfortable in the UK with anything too personal at work?
Or regardless of culture/ origin is it just incredibly unprofessional and inappropriate to get into divorce/ family problems as part of work chat?