Do I have an Honest Face?

Started a new job yesterday, perhaps for the summer, perhaps longer.  The place seems to be running smoothly, as it is old, it has been running in the same place for decades.  They trust that some employees will be tempted to steal and that some non employees will be tempted to steal.  Most of all the people seem nice.  But on the second day, I had two employees open up to me about personal issues and problems that they are going through and have experienced.  It is a little disconcerting.  It has been a while since something like this has happened to me, but it has happened.  It used to happen a lot.  I think that it is okay to do this to a friend, that is why they are your friend so that you can unburden yourselves on each other, sometimes it is by consent that it is one sided and sometimes it is no-sided.  But when you know the person one day and at that, only a couple conversations and none of them deep, it is a little weird.

It says: 1) I have to tell someone and you are here, 2) everyone knows this shit so I am bringing you up to speed first, 3) you seem like a person that can keep a secret so I am telling you.  The first one is excusable, we have all been there, and sometimes it just spills out but you should choose who you talk to carefully, like a friend.  The second, makes you feel like your coworker is unstable and that your coworkers are going to talk about you to EVERYONE, so choose your poison or better yet stop yourself.  In this case it is clear my coworker is unstable, but with a good reason.  The last is tricky.  There are people that have that face and sometimes they have the heart too, but sometimes they are bastards and will use what you tell them for their own interests, like writing about it for all to see in a blog.  My point is if you feel you can trust them, trust them with a little secret first.  Do not throw down your biggest secret and then hope they are that person.  The other thing is you are also assuming that they want to be the holder of your secret, they might not.  They might be traumatized by it.  Just saying, that you don't know and that if you think that their face is trustworthy or kind, you need to reexamine your ideas, you are probably wrong.

So don't burden the new guy.  Just don't.