INTHEBLACK March 2025 - Magazine - Page 53
Work
versus
home
persona
What are the pros and cons of
adopting separate personas for home
and work — and what happens when
the gap between the two is too big?
Words Nicola Heath
MANY PEOPLE ADOPT DISTINCT PERSONAS
for work and personal life — but can this
personality split take a toll? People and culture
consultant Jade Green believes it does.
Everyone should feel safe to bring their
whole selves to work, Green says. The notion
that workers should keep their work and
personal lives separate is a hangover from
industrialisation when people were told
to “slam down the roller door of disassociation”
in order to carry out their work, whether
on the assembly line or another form of
menial labour.
But knowledge workers in the modern
economy can’t zone out from the task at hand,
she says. “Expecting people to dissociate from
work nowadays is unfair and unrealistic.”
Green says people who repress their true
selves in the workplace are at risk of burnout.
“It’s exhausting trying to be something you’re
not, and it chews through cognitive resources
that could be used for other things, such as
decision-making.”
This has implications for organisations,
as it affects employee performance
and productivity.
“You’re not getting people’s absolute best
work because their brain is preoccupied trying
to project a persona, rather than being present
in the moment, focusing on a task and using
cognitive resources on problem-solving,”
Green says.
Separate work and home personalities can
also be due to an unconscious process of social
conditioning, which means some people may
not be aware that they’re doing it.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY AT WORK
Workplaces where employees don’t feel
capable of being themselves lack psychological
safety, which points to an issue with
organisational culture.
To find a solution, “you’ve got to go to
the problem behind the problem,” Green says.
“Look at how cultures create the space that
makes people feel safe to show up as their
full selves.”
intheblack.cpaaustralia.com.au 53
