Recalibrating Our Personal vs. Professional Lives

Two opinion articles provide opposing arguments about how much of our personal life we should share in professional settings. I encourage some vulnerability and authenticity, including revealing personal information about ourselves at work—within reason. Most employees want coworkers to share more, and authenticity correlates positively with “job satisfaction, in-role performance, and work engagement.” At the same time, people need to decide how much and when to share, considering the context, for example, the work environment and their coworkers.

Here are the two recent articles as examples, and students will find more on the subject:

• NY Times opinion, ”Do Not Bring Your ‘Whole Self’ to Work”

• WSJ opinion, “Returning to the Office? Let’s Keep the Line Between Work and Home Blurry”