The Economist June 4th 2022 Business 61A
phrase thatfirst became fashion-
able a decade ago is everywhere.
“Bring your whole self” is one of four
values that British Land, a property de-
veloper, trumpets on its website. Quartz,
a publisher, ran a workshop last year
called “How to navigate the whole-self
workplace”. “Your whole self is welcome
here,” pledges ing, a bank, to prospective
employees. (Whole Foods uses the
phrase on its global careers site, too, but
it has a decent excuse.)
There are spin-off selves. Workday, an
enterprise-software firm, wants its em-
ployees to be their “best selves” at work.
Finn, a classified-ads site in Norway, is
hiring for a compensation and benefits
specialist who loves to bring their “full
self” to the office. Key, an American
bank, prefers to use the term “authentic
self”. The idea that unites these phrases
is that employees need not pretend to be
someone they aren’t. Instead of having a
workplace persona and a non-workplace
persona, people can just relax and always
be themselves.
Behind this thought lies a good in-
tention—or rather lots of good inten-
tions. The notion of the whole self vari-
ously captures the idea that people are
more engaged in work if they believe in a
firm’s purpose; that teams are more
effective if colleagues understand each
other; that people with different identi-
ties should feel comfortable in their own
skins; that firms should care about and
respond to issues that affect their staff’s
well-being, from mental health to child
care; and that leaders need to show some
of their personal side to be connected
with their staff.
None of these things is silly. Many are
in fact actively desirable. However, any
idea that covers so much ground is
bound to have holes in it, and this onewould make a colander blush.
Most obviously, no one should actually
bring their whole selves to work. People
are a melange of traits, some good and
some bad. Many of them should be kept
well away from the workplace. Your pro-
fessional self displays commitment to the
job and eats lunch at a desk. Your whole
self is planning the next holiday and
binges ice cream on the sofa. Your profes-
sional self makes presentations to the
board and says things like: “Let’s get the
analytics team to kick the tyres on this.”
Your whole self cannot operate a toaster
and says things like: “Has anyone seen my
socks?” Pretending to be someone you are
not is not a problem; it’s essential.
For the same reasons, your employer
may say it wants you to bring your whole
self to work but doesn’t really mean it. A
company is a hierarchy, in which even the
most understanding bosses expect people
to follow orders rather than their hearts.
Say something that causes your firm
embarrassment, as a senior hsbcexec-
utive did last month by making fun of
apocalyptic warnings about climatechange, and you will end up being dis-
owned rather than lauded for authen-
ticity. This column is named for a short
story by Herman Melville, in which the
eponymous character speaks his own
truth by saying “I would prefer not to” to
every single request made of him by his
manager. He ends up dead.
Any job that involves a uniform is by
definition asking employees to subsume
their personalities, not express them.
When times are tough or performance is
shoddy, an employee is an individual
second and a line item in the budget first.
If the circumstances require it, he will be
asked to leave and take his whole self
with him.
As a result, the bringing of whole
selves is carefully circumscribed. Candi-
dates for jobs typically feel obliged to tell
interviewers a few things about them-
selves in order to show that they are
rounded human beings. Without fail
those things are along the lines of “I have
a dog called Casaubon, run a local food
bank and love to go sea kayaking.” They
are never “I hate animals, exercise and
my fellow humans.”
Lots of executives, too, deal in whole-
selfery of a very synthetic kind. As a rule
of thumb, if you are taking advice on how
to be authentic, you are not being au-
thentic. And if you are scheduling meet-
ings in order to display vulnerability, you
are mainly showing controlled cunning.
One of the attractions of the work-
place is that it is a place where there is a
shared endeavour. That endeavour is
called “work”. You need to be friendly to
be a good colleague, but you don’t need
to be friends. You need to be capable of
empathy, but you don’t need to constant-
ly emote. You have to turn up, try hard
and play your part. You have to bring
your role self.And why you really should not bring it to workBartlebyYour whole self
Netflix, a video-streamer, laid off 150 staff.
The following week news broke that Pay-
Pal, a payments firm, was cutting 80 or so
jobs. In both cases that was roughly 1% of
their respective workforces.
Strategically important teams are pro-
tected from the measures. Microsoft’s
hiring slowdown applies to its software
units, such as Windows and Teams, but not
its fast-growing cloud business. PayPal’s
lay-offs affected staff researching emerg-
ing technologies, such as quantum com-
puting, while sparing core functions. Ma-
ny of the sacked Netflixers worked in mar-
keting rather than on shows. Demand for
the most prized skills, such as understand-
ing of advanced data science, is so high
that people who possess them will be
sought out even in a downturn.
At the big tech companies talented em-
ployees who hint that they want to jump
ship are still receiving generous counter-
offers, says Greg Selker of Stanton Chase,
an executive-search firm. On May 16th Mi-
crosoft said it was raising its budget for sal-
ary increases for certain workers, in an at-
tempt to stop talent from fleeing. Amazon
did something similar a few months earli-er. Tech-focused recruiters say business is
perky. Indeed, the number of listings for
technology-industry jobs in May and April
was far higher than at the same time last
year, notes Mr Bhatia.
Some analysts argue the tech industry
is bigger, more mature and stable than in
the go-go 1990s, which may shield its work-
ers from the pain of previous busts. Others
note that after the dot-com bubble burst in
2000, tech work began disappearing only a
year after the stockmarket crash. One thing
is certain: the anxiety level of posts on
Blind will stay high for a while.