How much do you let your walls down when interacting with colleagues, superiors and direct reports? Do you keep a stiff upper lip and only reveal the depths of your personality when necessary, or are you completely transparent? For many of us, we can make the choice, and which path you chose is important.

Minter Dial recently wrote a wonderful piece on “Should You Bring Your Whole Self to Work?,” discussing the transparency scale available to all of us, and it got me reflecting on my own history with transparency in the office. And in discussing upcoming yearly performance reviews with a colleague, some of Dial’s points really started hitting home, so I thought I’d share some of my own experiences and thoughts.

In my mind, how transparent you are in the workplace largely depends on three factors: how comfortable you are letting your guard down, where you work and who you’re interacting with. Some jobs and industries require you to be more secretive, some people can’t be trusted, and some people just can’t let loose. Simple as that.

Also, there are some topics you just probably shouldn’t be transparent about. Some people have ruined their careers by proudly voicing their politics, exposing their personal lives to those with different cultural norms, or just being a bit of a weirdo. The idea of “professionalism” often doubles as a way of keeping everyone from getting a little too weird or offensives.