In a work environment, where everyone is part of a team ostensibly working toward a common goal, that’s a crucial service. That’s why people in Toby Flenderson’s line of work exist: To give their co-workers a safe space in which they can relieve some of the pressure, get their private concerns out into the open, and move on.
They’re harmful for everyone involved, but as toxic as it is to push thoughts and feelings and beliefs into a dark corner of the mind where no one else can find them, thrusting those quantities into the light initiates a potentially dangerous chain reaction. There are plenty of good reasons to keep a secret one of the best is outlined in a childhood rhyme (that Michael Scott interprets as a profound nugget of wisdom) in a third-season episode of The Office: Secrets are harmful. In which Michael opens a box he’ll never be able to properly seal…
