I haven't mentioned Grad Daniel yet, but he's one of the new grads who is currently in my team. I kinda think of him as my protégé, because even though he's a grad, it feels like he's a grad like me, who doesn't care about brown-nosing. I think a lot of the time, we get each other through the work day, because we'll chat to each other over IM and keep each other awake. One of the things that he does a lot is eavesdrop on other people's conversations. We have an open plan office which means you can always hear other people talking.
When I was growing up, I was always taught that eavesdropping is rude. I did it anyway, but I tried to avoid doing it on purpose. After starting work, and with all the background chatter, I started to filter things out - firstly because I figured I should keep out of other people's business, but also because there are certain compliance things regarding knowing information, and I don't want to get someone into trouble by saying something I shouldn't - so the less I know, the better!
But it seems like eavesdropping is the norm in my current team. Mostly it's the good kind of eavesdropping, when Grad Daniel and I are trying to solve a particular problem, and one of the more experienced developers will overhear and say, "Why don't you try X?" But sometimes it's about personal things. I partly feel that if they are talking that loudly, then whatever they say is free game, but I still feel that if I were to chip in suddenly, it would be rude.
Grad Daniel keeps telling me to get better at eavesdropping so that I can keep up with what's going on in the rest of the team. Maybe I should just listen and not say anything unless I really think they will benefit from my addition?
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