October 7, 2022
Pamela Paul certainly doesn’t think so. This is a hilarious article on why it’s best if we just bring our work selves to work…
Do not “bring your whole self” to work.
That’s right! Defy the latest catchphrase of human resources and leave a good portion of you back home. Maybe it’s the part of you that’s grown overly attached to athleisure. The side that needs to talk about candy (guilty). It could be the getting-married part of you still agonizing over whether a destination wedding is morally defensible in These Times.
Leave those things behind and I promise: No one in your workplace will miss them. And remember, it works both ways. Anyone worth sharing a flex desk with is not someone you want to see every last ounce of either. They, too, can reserve their aches, grievances, flimsy excuses and noisy opinions for the roommate, the pandemic puppy and the houseplants.
As a culture speaker you might think I’d disagree. But I don’t. She makes a great argument for it.
And… there’s a missed opportunity.
Rather than bring your whole self, bring your future self.
Your future self is the person you want to become. And (most likely), your colleagues want to help you get there. That’s why we had an entire goals department at Zappos.
It’s a similar psychology to why NPS (Net Promoter Score) is better than CSAT (Customer Satisfaction). CSAT surveys focus on all the grievances of the past – Meaning it’s a complaint-fest. But NPS asks the consumer – How can this be better? It engages our imaginations.
When I lead my team at Zappos, we had a “dream wall” with images of everything each person wanted to experience or accomplish. And we would bring them up in our one-on-one meetings.
If we bring our future selves to work, we bond over what we actually want, rather than grievances and gossip.
