Bringing your 'whole self' to work
The Bottom Line
BBC
4.6 • 606 Ratings
🗓️ 18 January 2024
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s become the mantra of many employers, and the expectation of some employees, but what does bringing your whole or authentic self to work actually mean, and should companies encourage it?
Evan Davis and guests discuss the pros and cons of a workplace culture in which staff share their personal beliefs, politics and vulnerabilities with colleagues. What impact does it have on employee satisfaction and business productivity? And, at a time of great political and cultural polarisation, how do you prevent the ‘whole self’ ethos stirring up trouble?
Evan is joined by:
Nana Berchie, global people director for diversity, belonging and human rights, Arcadis; Octavius Black, founder and CEO, The Mind Gym; Kate Palmer, employment services director, Peninsula UK; Sophia Luu, freelance design researcher and founder of Secrets Worth Sharing.
PRODUCTION TEAM:
Producer: Simon Tulett Editor: Matt Willis Sound: Rod Farquhar Production co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
The Bottom Line is produced in partnership with The Open University.
(Picture: A woman hiding behind her laptop. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.2 | Hello and welcome to the programme, the first in a new series. |
| 0:08.8 | Now, we don't do war and geopolitics on the bottom line, not our subject, but we do like to examine office politics and the wars that sometimes result. |
| 0:18.6 | And sometimes global politics and office politics become entangled. |
| 0:23.3 | I've been struck by how several people have mentioned to me |
| 0:26.2 | that the war between Israel and Hamas is causing tension in the workplace. |
| 0:31.6 | Arguments. |
| 0:32.6 | And arguments about symbols, people wanting to wear a badge of a Palestinian flag, |
| 0:37.3 | or an Israeli one, for example. |
| 0:39.3 | What should employers do in these situations? Should they say no to both those groups? |
| 0:45.3 | Or yes to both? Or should they pick aside? Good luck with that. Well, driving the tensions on some |
| 0:51.5 | of these decisions has been an ethos that says when we go to work, |
| 0:55.4 | we should bring our whole selves with us. |
| 0:58.1 | It's a mantra of some employers and it's an expectation of some employees. |
| 1:02.8 | If you're gay, you should be gay at work. |
| 1:05.1 | If you're juggling responsibilities of looking after a disabled child, |
| 1:09.2 | well, it'll help your colleagues if they know about that. |
| 1:12.6 | But does the whole self-ethos, does it apply to other things? |
| 1:16.6 | Does it make sense if you're passionate about a charity or a political cause that you should bring that to work with you as well? |
| 1:24.6 | Well, it's an area fraught with complexities, and we have three guests |
| 1:28.7 | to talk us through some of the difficult lines that have to be drawn between promoting authentic |
| 1:34.0 | employees and just getting staff to focus on the job at hand without conflict. Let me introduce |
... |
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