Workplace AI Etiquette & Policy
The damage from undisclosed AI use is the surprise on discovery, not the assistance — which is why proportionate disclosure protects you.
Objectives
- Find out what their own organization actually permits, rather than assuming.
- Judge when AI use is worth disclosing and when disclosure is noise.
- Explain why undisclosed use damages trust more than the use itself.
- Handle shared work — documents, code, reports — where colleagues may not expect assistance.
- Respond appropriately when no policy exists yet.
- Recognize where client or contractual terms restrict AI use independently of employer policy.
- Raise an AI-use question with a manager without it becoming a confession.
Introduction
Most people's first workplace AI problem is not a technical one. It is that they used an assistant in a way a colleague, manager or client found surprising — and the surprise, rather than the use, was the damage.
This module is about the social and organizational layer. What your employer permits, what your colleagues reasonably expect, when disclosure matters and when it is noise, and how to raise the question when your workplace has no answer yet.
None of this is universal. Organizations differ, sectors differ, countries differ. What transfers is the habit of finding out rather than assuming, and a way to behave sensibly while the rules are still being written.
Find Out Before You Assume
Where policy actually lives — handbooks, contracts, client agreements, professional bodies — and the fact that silence is not permission.
Disclosure That Is Proportionate
A spectrum rather than a rule: from unremarkable to genuinely material, with the test that distinguishes them.
Why Surprise Is the Damage
Trust is broken by the discovery, not the assistance — which is why proportionate disclosure protects you.
When There Is No Policy
The common case: behaving defensibly in an organization that has not decided yet.
Raising It Without Confessing
How to ask a manager a forward-looking question rather than an apology.
A disclosure spectrum, not a rule
The useful question is not did I use AI but would this person be surprised, and would it change how they read the work?
Situation → Typical treatment:
The middle row is where judgment lives. A single sentence — "I drafted this with an assistant and checked the figures" — resolves almost all of it.
A disclosure spectrum, not a rule
The useful question is not “did I use AI” but whether this person would be surprised, and whether it would change how they read the work.
Three situations with their typical treatment, read as a spectrum rather than a single rule. Tidying your own notes or drafting a routine internal message is unremarkable and no disclosure is expected. Substantive shared work, or a report others will rely on, is worth saying so plainly — it costs nothing and prevents surprise. Assessed work, regulated output, or anywhere a rule applies is where disclosure is required and the rule governs. The middle band is where judgement lives, and a single sentence usually resolves it.
Unremarkable
No disclosure expected.
- Tidying your own notes
- Drafting a routine internal message
Say so plainly
It costs nothing and prevents surprise.
- Substantive shared work
- A report others will rely on
- Where judgement livesOne sentence resolves almost all of it: “I drafted this with an assistant and checked the figures.”
Disclosure is required
And the rule governs.
- Assessed work, regulated output, or where a rule applies
- The rule decides, not your judgementFind out what applies to your own situation rather than assuming.
- Tidying your own notes; drafting a routine internal message — Unremarkable — no disclosure expected
- Substantive shared work; a report others will rely on — Say so plainly — it costs nothing and prevents surprise
- Assessed work, regulated output, or where a rule applies — Disclosure is required, and the rule governs
When your workplace has no policy
This is the ordinary case, not the exception. Behave in a way that would look reasonable if reviewed later:
That last one has a side effect worth knowing: in many organizations the person who asks becomes the person consulted when the policy is written.
- Use assistance for surrounding work, not for the accountable core.
- Do not put confidential or personal information into external tools.
- Say so where the work is shared and substantive.
- Keep your own verification step, and be able to describe it.
- Ask the question forward: "Is there guidance on this, and if not, would it help if there were?"
Practical exercise
≈8 minFind out what your organization says. Handbook, intranet, contract, onboarding material, or a direct question. Spend ten real minutes on this. Write down what you found — including "nothing, as far as I can tell," which is a legitimate and common result.
Check the second layer: do client agreements, professional bodies, or sector rules apply to your work independently of your employer? Take three things you did this month with assistance and place each on the disclosure spectrum.
Write the one-sentence disclosure you would use for the middle-row item. Draft the forward-looking question you would ask a manager — phrased as a question about guidance, not as a disclosure about yourself.
The learner produces: a record of what their organization actually says, a note on the second layer, three items placed on the spectrum, one disclosure sentence, and one forward-looking question. Expected outcome: most learners discover their organization has said less than they assumed — in either direction — and that the ten-minute check was the whole exercise.
Nothing is submitted or stored — this is yours. If you would rather not use your own material, or cannot right now, use the supplied alternative in the module's no-tool fallback instead; both teach the same skill.
Your progress
0 of 2 required activities complete in this module · course progress 0%
- ○ GlobSynk Lab™ · optional
- ○ Reflection
- ○ Checkpoint
GlobSynk Lab™
optional, ≈5 minAbout GlobSynk Lab™. GlobSynk Lab™ is the hands-on practice experience used throughout GlobSynk Academy. This Lab is optional hands-on practice: complete it now, skip it and continue the module, or return to it later. Skipping this Lab does not prevent you from continuing the course. For these activities you'll use an AI assistant that you already have access to, then return to Academy to continue your reflection and checkpoint.
Write the one-sentence disclosure you would attach to a real piece of shared work, then read it back and ask whether it sounds like an apology or like a professional note.
Most first drafts sound like an apology. Rewrite it until it reads as ordinary — the same register you would use to say you had asked a colleague to review something. That register is the whole point: proportionate disclosure only works if it is unremarkable.
Reflection
≈2 minThink of a time you found out how something was made after the fact — a document, a decision, a piece of work — and it changed how you felt about it. Was the issue the method, or that you had not been told? What does that suggest about your own practice?
This reflection is yours alone — it is never sent to GlobSynk or stored. Only the fact that you completed it is saved.
Checkpoint
5 questions · unscored gate · instant feedback · retry as often as you like.
Answer all 5 questions to continue.
Key takeaways
- Find out what your organization actually says; silence is not permission.
- Disclosure is a spectrum — unremarkable, say so plainly, or a rule applies.
- Trust breaks on the discovery, not on the assistance.
- Client agreements, professional bodies and sector rules apply independently of your employer.
- Where no policy exists, behave defensibly and raise the question forward rather than as a confession.
Practice in Prompt Lab — optional
OptionalPractice writing a disclosure sentence that does not read as an apology.
In Prompt Lab, draft the one-sentence disclosure you would attach to a piece of shared work and practice getting the register right — professional and unremarkable rather than apologetic or over-explained. Try it for two different situations and notice how little needs to change. Use an invented work context rather than real employer or client material.
Optional, and never required. Prompt Lab is not GlobSynk Lab™. Opening it is not part of module completion, the checkpoint, course progress, the Final Assessment, the certificate or Reward Points, and a learner who never opens it completes this course exactly as normal. Academy never depends on Prompt Lab being reachable.
Practice Prompting in the Real WorldOpens in a new tab. Optional practice — never required for this module, the checkpoint, your progress, the Final Assessment, the certificate or Reward Points.
Before you move on
You know what your organization actually says, where the second layer of rules sits, and how to say what you did in a sentence that sounds ordinary. That handles the visible part. Underneath it is the question every learner on this course eventually reaches: if assistance keeps improving, what exactly is the part that stays yours?