Last year, while I was speaking at PASS about imposter syndrome, another topic kept coming up in conversations: knowledge hoarding.
At the time, I honestly didn’t fully understand it. I’ve always been someone who loves to share what I know. If you’ve ever worked with me, you know that if you give me a whiteboard, I’ll train the paint off the walls.
But over the past year, I started noticing patterns in myself and in others that made me realize why knowledge hoarding happens and why it matters more than I thought.
So, let’s talk about it.
What Is Knowledge Hoarding?
Knowledge hoarding happens when someone keeps troubleshooting steps, skills, or “tribal knowledge” to themselves instead of sharing it with the team or organization.
Sometimes it’s intentional.
Sometimes it’s not.
Either way, the result is usually the same: silos, inefficiency, and a lot of frustration.
Why Knowledge Hoarding Happens
Here are some reasons I’ve seen firsthand, including times I’ve caught myself doing it:
Insufficient experience
People worry that if others use certain information, they might misuse it. For example, I’ve written scripts for masking sensitive data. I don’t share them broadly because if someone accidentally runs them in production instead of a test environment, it could be catastrophic. I still document them, but only for DBAs with the right access and training.
Job security
This is probably the most common reason. If you’re the only person who understands a critical system, you feel indispensable ( I believe this is not the type of job security you want; it creates stress, bottlenecks, and keeps both you and your team from growing).
Lack of engagement
It’s hard to stay motivated to teach when the other person seems distracted or uninterested. Knowledge sharing works bestwhen both sides are invested.
Imposter syndrome
The fear that if you share your process, others will criticize it or find flaws.
No incentives
If there’s no recognition for mentoring or documenting, it can feel like wasted effort, or even punishment for being helpful.
Competitive culture
When a company pits employees against each other, knowledge becomes a weapon instead of a tool.
Poor documentation
If your organization doesn’t have a reliable, organized way to store knowledge, it just gets lost. When documentation is unorganized, overly complicated, or confusing, people tend to rely on one person to keep doing the same task. Over time, that creates bottlenecks and single points of failure.
Constant firefighting
When everything is “urgent,” nobody has time to teach. Everyone is juggling 100 things at once, trying to survive the next crisis.
Lack of awareness
Sometimes people simply don’t realize how harmful it is to keep information to themselves.
The Pros and Cons
Like most things, knowledge hoarding isn’t completely black and white.
Pros for the individual
- Fewer mistakes if inexperienced people don’t touch sensitive processes
- A sense of job security by being the “go-to person”
- Faster project completion without pausing to teach
- A competitive edge in tough environments
- Quality control because only vetted ideas move forward
Cons for everyone
- Slower collaboration and inefficiency
- Dangerous single points of failure; if someone gets hit by a bus, that knowledge is gone
- Silos that block transparency and teamwork
- Team members are unable to move up or be promoted because they are “the best person for that one position,” and the company can’t afford to lose them.
- Overworked and overwhelmed team members who take on the same specialized tasks repeatedly
- Bottlenecks in project work while waiting for one person to finish everything
- Limited creativity and innovation since only one perspective drives decisions
- Stunted growth for both the company and the people in it
- Frustration and low morale among teammates who feel left out or undervalued
- Higher churn rates and job dissatisfaction, especially for people who feel stuck doing the same thing over and over with no sense of purpose
(Some people genuinely enjoy repetitive work, and that’s fine, but for others, it can feel draining and meaningless.)
The Real-World Impacts
I’ve lived through this.
Years ago, I owned a product at a company. I managed migrations, updates, communications, everything. Eventually, ownership shifted to a new team. I handed over all my notes, configs, and reminders.
Despite that, they pushed an update without applying the necessary fixes, and production broke.
I spent two exhausting weeks helping recover it. Later, their manager accused me of keeping the product knowledge secret. But I had stand-ups, documentation, and transfer sessions to prove otherwise.
I wasn’t hoarding knowledge. I was ignored.
And that’s the tricky part. Sometimes, knowledge hoarding gets confused with a lack of engagement, and it leaveseveryone frustrated.
Why Knowledge Hoarding Happens
Here are some reasons I’ve seen firsthand, including times I’ve caught myself doing it:
Overworked and overwhelmed teams
When everything is urgent and the team is constantly “on fire,” nobody has the time or energy to teach or learn. People are juggling 100 things at once, trying to survive the next crisis. Sometimes, interest in sharing knowledge just fades under the pressure.
Job security
This is probably the most common reason. If you’re the only person who understands a critical system, you feel indispensable.
Lack of engagement
It’s hard to stay motivated to teach when the other person seems distracted or uninterested. Knowledge sharing works bestwhen both sides are invested.
Imposter syndrome
The fear that if you share your process, others will criticize it or find flaws.
No incentives
If there’s no recognition for mentoring or documenting, it can feel like wasted effort—or even punishment for being helpful.
Competitive culture
When a company pits employees against each other, knowledge becomes a weapon instead of a tool.
Poor documentation
If your organization doesn’t have a reliable, organized way to store knowledge, it just gets lost. When documentation is unorganized, overly complicated, or confusing, people tend to rely on one person to keep doing the same task. Over time, that creates bottlenecks and single points of failure.
Insufficient experience
People worry that if others use certain information, they might misuse it. For example, I’ve written scripts for masking sensitive data. I don’t share them broadly because if someone accidentally runs them in production instead of a test environment, it could be catastrophic. I still document them, but only for DBAs with the right access and training.
Lack of awareness
Sometimes people simply don’t realize how harmful it is to keep information to themselves.
Final Thoughts
I used to think knowledge hoarding was just laziness or selfishness. Now I see it differently. It’s often rooted in fear, insecurity, or broken systems, not bad intentions.
That doesn’t make it okay. Knowledge hoarding still hurts teams, slows progress, and leaves people frustrated.
Here’s my personal rule: I want to do my job so well that if I leave tomorrow, I don’t leave behind gaps. Not because I gave away every detail, but because I taught what mattered, documented what counted, and built trust with the people around me.
Knowledge should be shared. Otherwise, it dies in silos, and when that happens, growth dies with it.
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