Learning to Deal with Surprising Myself

I’d like to think that I know myself pretty well. I typically can predict my reactions to particular situations and circumstances, and I can hold back emotion where necessary. While I’m passionate about my work and life, for the protection of my privacy I can paste on a straight face and charge through almost all situations. At least so I thought.

There is a risk in getting emotionally connected with your work life. Being close friends or having deeper relationships within the space you work in can be difficult. You have to excercise with caution. Which is exactly the opposite of what I did this evening.

At dinner with friends (all who work in my space), I overheard two of them sort of/kind of talking about other friends. I don’t think I heard enough of the details to garner a reaction, but react I did…actually errupt. I mean, like for real (I’d like to blame on me being tired, or worse, the second glass of wine, but who knows if that’s the truth). Now the context is sort of irrelevant (but I think you can figure out that it comes down to me having a crush on someone or another),  what’s important here is the impact that feeling this emotional so closely to my work life could have on my career.

Could being this emotional and having such close friends in the space have a negative impact on my career? Where do you draw the line and separate? How do you protect your work/life or am I overthinking it?