What Does "Just Be Yourself" Genuinely Translate to at Work? | Christine vs. Work

0:00When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new.

0:36It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18+. Have you ever gotten the advice, just be yourself? Don't try to be anything but yourself. Just be yourself. Just be yourself. Just be yourself. It's like, well, all right, at the end of the day, what does this really mean when it comes to your professional life and going to work?

1:12Outside of work, that is not a problem. But being myself at work, that's harder. Research shows that it's overall beneficial for people to be more authentic at work. So when I hear be yourself or be authentic, you're going to be honest, right? And then if you're honest, you might be blunt. And if you're blunt, I don't know, maybe you'll be seen as abrasive. And if you're seen as abrasive, then like you're going to be named not professional. Here's my question. What does bringing my authentic self to work really look like? And have expectations changed over time? What about this past year?

1:59misconception is that like if you 100 bring yourself to work that's it there's no that's either it's either like zero or a hundred there's nothing in between when in actuality it is 100 a personal choice it's not like some all in or nothing that's madison butler she's the vice president of people and culture at a startup based in austin texas she specializes in workplace culture and in creating inclusive business environments. Madison, when you bring our authentic self to work, what does that really look like? How do you bring that? So obviously, it's a little different now because we're not in the office.

2:32But I actually think the authenticity part is a lot deeper than about my blue hair or my tattoos. It's about being really honest with ourselves about everything else that's going on in our lives, whether it be COVID, or George Floyd, or you're going through a divorce. There's all of this other stuff that happens every day. And it doesn't pay for us to ignore those things. I think there is this misconception that we get to work, we check our human sweater at the door, and we move on with life. And that's just not reality. So Madison, you feel so comfortable being your authentic self and sending that message to everyone.

3:09Was there ever a time that this was hard for you or this wasn't always the case? oh god totally and i think you know that it starts much earlier than corporate america i think you know even as we're growing up we want to fit in we want to have friends i had this moment where i think you know we probably have all dated the wrong person at some point in our lives um and i was a very different person for that person and when i got out of that relationship it was kind of like a promise that i made to myself that i wasn't going to do this again but i hadn't made that commitment to myself at work is.

3:41I remember the kind of turning point for me though. I had an interview here in Austin and they kind of ranted and raved about how much they loved me and how great I was and they really wanted to bring me on and then it was followed by like this big fat butt and it was like we love you but we would need you to change your hair, cover your tattoos, wear dresses and heels and I was like oh god I wear Birkenstocks like every day. um and I think that was the first time that I really realized how many people have I worked for that didn't like me at all they like the idea of who they could make me into as long as I would make them money um and I think that was the moment that I realized like if I'm gonna work for someone else's dream then they really need to value me at a hundred percent it's taken me a very long time to understand that if I make someone uncomfortable that is not my responsibility if you are uncomfortable with my blackness, my queerness, my blue hair, whatever it is, it's not my responsibility to make you feel comfortable.

4:41None of that has any impact on how I do my job, except it makes me better at what I do because I embrace all of those things about myself. I totally get where Madison's coming from. And thinking of my own story, there was definitely a time when I was like, yeah, I know. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work? Use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a$75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast.

5:18That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored jobs. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+.

5:51I need to be myself here. I can't fit this mold that doesn't fit me. I was just about to graduate from college and I was going on all these job interviews and I felt forced to buy a suit, have sensible pumps, be very conservative, feel like I was in this sort of business mold. and it made me realize that this wasn't for me. This was not my chosen path and I needed to be in a place where I could be creative, wear color, hang out with people that are outside of the corporate norm. What is the proper way to approach the idea of bringing your authentic self and what is a sort of misnomer or misconception about it?

6:33When it comes to the things that you disclose at work or the things that you bring to work, that is 100 % up to that person. there will be tons of people who regardless never want to talk about their family or their relationships at work and they don't have to and that's fine but then there are other people who are completely fine talking about those things and I think that's fine too I really hate the word professional because again just like corporate America the word professional was not intended for people who look like me so that's really interesting essentially it's about the employer giving people the autonomy and choice to bring as much as they want to work.

7:06So if I think about myself, I guess I put myself around, I bring maybe 50 % of myself, you know, freely to work. But what if you're not as lucky and you find yourself in a restrictive environment that doesn't really allow you to make that choice of how much you bring of yourself to work? I mean, what is the real cost there? It is so exhausting to be two people during the day. I worked with someone who I used to ask them, why don't you ever come to like company sponsored happy hours or events? And her response to me was, you know, I go sit in my car every day at lunch, just so I can breathe and like, put my guard down for an hour.

7:45Because it is so exhausting to be someone else for eight hours a day that I just can't even fathom doing it after 5pm. And so when you get people who are in situations like that, you're spending so much of your energy making sure that you fit in, that you didn't come across a certain way, that it's impossible to be completely 100 % great at what you're doing. When you empower people to be exactly who they're intending to be in the world, you get people who are more focused on what they're doing every day. If I'm not focused on the sound of my voice, I can really focus on what I'm saying. So what if I'm an employer and look, this is going to be a cynical point of view.

8:23But hey, business is good. I don't want to rock the boat. And anyway, why should I let my employees bring their outside lives into the workplace? Human capital is the most expensive capital we all have. So it pays for us to take care of our human capital retention and costs a lot of money. It costs a lot of money to onboard people. For example, there is a company who I won't name. They're actually really big, but their onboarding process costs about a million dollars per employee. So if you have someone who lasts about 18 months, have you actually gotten your return on investment? Probably not.

8:59So it actually pays to understand the humans in your building, regardless of what industry we're in or how many people we have. At the end of the day, we have people. And if you understand how they work and why they work and why things maybe aren't as streamlined as they were last week, you have a better, you have a better chance of coaching them and leading them to be successful. So I learned a lot from Madison. It was really great to hear her story and her insights about bring your whole self to work. And now I understand it. It's really not just, you know, things you're wearing or things you're showing or the color of your hair.

9:33It's really about the ability to bring your whole complex self to the office. And for employers out there, retention saves money. If you allow people to be themselves at work, they'll probably stay. So regardless of how you feel, at the end of the day, you employ humans. And if you don't value humans, then you have no business employing them. Which of yourself are you being, like, right now? So right now, if I had to give a percentage, I'm probably pretty healthy, 85, 90 % right now. I'm in my house. I'm with a friendly colleague, Andy. I feel like I can joke or just be honest or if like I don't know anything, I can just blurt it out and I'm learning too.

10:18And this is all a lot of new territory or things I could definitely improve on. So I'm pretty upfront about that. Yeah, I mean, this is my life. This is my house. This is pretty much all me. If you're still watching, one, thank you. But two, I'm really curious. Like what do you want me to explore? Like what problems do you have at work? I love to solve them. Please leave a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts. And if you have any other ideas, throw them my way. All right. Peace out. Close your eyes. Exhale. Feel your body relax. And let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class.

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