[astura]

>It was information that did nothing to benefit me, my peers or those below us in the organization.

You are mistaken, open salaries benefited you. They let you actually see the huge organizational problems in the company that would have otherwise been hidden. You had more information in which to make your career decisions on.

The bad feelings were not caused by the open salaries, they were caused by the problems you listed.

[unabst]

Exactly. Information is never the cause. It is only the trail. The most information can do -- and is meant to do -- is influence people. Ergo, the bad or good feelings (or decisions, in most cases).

Except, the problem is then the inability of the person with that information to attack those problems.

Anyone with the capacity to do something about those root causes should know everything. For the rest, that information is irrelevant to their job, and distracting at best.

[astura]

Going by that logic you shouldn't tell your spouse if your terminally ill because he or she can't do anything about it and public companies shouldn't be required to release their financials because you can't do anything about it.

[djsumdog]

Terminal illness can't really be hidden and does affect your spouse and family.

A better analogy is infidelity. You shouldn't tell a partner if you've been unfaithful because it benefits no one. I think this quite by the Australian author Bettina Arndt says it best:

"That's the amazing thing. So many people end up confessing to an affair, which strikes me as the ultimate stupidity. Sure, you may believe you are confessing all to preserve honesty in your marriage, or because he/she deserved the truth, but the reality is that this 'telling' business is all about people not having the backbone to live with their guilt. Telling doesn't right the wrong; it adds to it."

(The Sex Diaries / Bettina Arndt)

[unabst]

Actually I did think about that. But that is personal. Jobs are personal too, but they really shouldn't be.

Your spouse isn't paying you to be with them, and you're not doing any "job".