Blog Post 46: The Whole Self Trend at Work

There’s a recent workplace trend called bringing your “whole self” to work. According to BetterUp, an organizational health and coaching company, we are most able “to be present physically, mentally, and emotionally when our work persona and home persona are the same.” In theory, this is an intriguing and thoughtful idea. However, New York Times Opinion Columnist Pamela Paul argues against the concept in this great piece. We very much agree with her.

The intent with the "whole self" movement is to know you will be accepted at work even if you are of a different race, gender, socioeconomic background, or quirkiness level from the majority of your co-workers. Creativity can spark if people feel free to be themselves and don't have to be so buttoned-up in a work environment.

This is a decent premise, but it is idealistic. Reality is far more complicated. Work is not always an accepting environment, especially in the corporate world. Many people will struggle to figure out what is appropriate and what is not. Type C people might spend a lot of time worrying about what this really means, and they may actually end up doing more for others. Whole self sounds like "give us your everything in order to make it here" - and Type C can take that too far. We are already giving too much.

“Whole self” could also lead to more personal stuff being discussed at work - which could be used against people. According to BetterUp, “we can become risk-takers by creating psychological safety in organizations” and “psychological safety is comfort in making a mistake at work.” However, the stakes can be really high when it comes to mistakes at work - performance is being judged continually, and pay is tied to performance. 

Here are just a few examples that we think challenge the benefit of bringing your “whole self” to work. 1. Parenting - this is a huge part of your life that you might not want to talk about at work - maybe you are sensitive about having to leave to go to parent-teacher conferences or school plays. Or, you have a child with special needs, which you are uncomfortable discussing. 2. Health issues - you could have all kinds of things happening health-wise and you want your privacy around this. 3. Personal life - maybe you're going through a divorce - definitely no one's business but yours. 

Yes, relaxing some of the “buttoned-upness” of corporate environments can be positive, but people should be able to maintain the level of privacy that feels comfortable to them. We would love to see a discussion of bringing the “whole self” to work that also includes setting safer boundaries to protect mental and physical self.