As much as I commend Brad on a good editorial encouraging people to work hard and show their value, there is a dark side to what he is suggesting and I have been dealing with just that for the last couple weeks. The 'dark side'? Information Hoarding.

As a manager and executive I have dealt with this problem before and will have to deal with it now yet again, but I would encourage others not to engage in this as any means of ensuring job security - quite the contrary - it destroys the team dynamic and breeds contempt between workers. Every company is suffering in this economy and the best way to get through it is to tighten the team and produce good efficient work. But when an employee (or worse, a manager as in the case I am dealing with) starts hoarding information from others thinking that appears to increase their importance and value to a company, nothing could be further from the case.

Keeping information from others and failing to delegate tasks to capable workers goes a great distance to showing a manager that there is a people-problem, NOT that some particular worker is somehow the Superman (or woman) in an organization. And I, like many managers, am experienced enough to know a hoarder is not any superstar - they are more a 'fly in the ointment'.

So I would say yes, work hard, show your value, and pull together as a good team member - whereas inhibiting your co-workers efforts so you might look more important is not going to fool any good manager, and will likely get you to the unemployment line faster than merely a bad economy.