How to be vulnerable at work Without spilling every thing

How to be vulnerable at work

Without spilling every thing

By Brené Brown

How open should you be with your coworkers?

These days many workplaces are encouraging their employees to be vulnerable and authentic, but opening up at work can feel precarious.

If we open up the wrong way, it can sometimes backfire but vulnerability can also bring us closer to other people and make teams stronger. The key, according to author, podcast host and vulnerability researcher Brené Brown, is establishing boundaries.

On a special episode of the TED podcast WorkLife, Brené and organizational psychologist Adam Grant talk about what vulnerability in the workplace really means.

Here’s an excerpt from their perspective-shifting conversation:

Adam Grant: One of the fears that a lot of people carry around is that if they’re vulnerable at the wrong time or with the wrong person, especially if they’re in a more performance-oriented culture at work that they might not be seen as competent. How do I figure out what the appropriate amount of vulnerability is?

Vulnerability minus boundaries is not vulnerability.

Brené Brown: So I would say you’ll never succeed in a performative culture if you don’t have some of the things that really are vulnerable, like curiosity. If you pretend like you know everything and you’re not a learner, that house of cards is going to collapse at some point. What I think people are asking is: “How much is too much to share about my feelings?”

And that always leads me to this very simple sentence: Vulnerability minus boundaries is not vulnerability.

Are you sharing your emotions and your experiences to move your work, connection or relationship forward? Or are you working your s—t out with somebody? Work is not a place to do that.

I’ll give you an example. I was working with a group of newly funded CEOs from Silicon Valley. One of them came up to me and said, ”I’m going to be vulnerable.

I’m going to tell my investors and my employees, ‘We’re in over our head. I don’t know what I’m doing, and we’re bleeding money.”

I said, ”OK, you must have stepped out to go to the bathroom during the part where I said vulnerability minus boundaries is not vulnerability. We always have to interrogate our intention around sharing and question who we’re sharing with and whether it’s the right thing.”

He said, “You don’t think I should do it?”

I said, “I think you’ll never get funding again. And I think you will unfairly put the people who’ve probably left great jobs to follow you over here into a terrible position of fear. If you are literally in over your head, you should absolutely share that with someone. But the question is: Who is the appropriate person to tell?”

Grant: I so appreciate the nuance that you bring to vulnerability — just because vulnerability helps to build trust doesn’t mean you should share everything with all people. And I think that’s such a common misconception.

Some of the most vulnerable and authentic leaders I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with personally disclose very little.

Brown: Look, some of the most vulnerable and authentic leaders I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with — truly authentic and truly vulnerable people — personally disclose very little. And some of the leaders I work with disclose everything, and they are the least authentic and vulnerable people. Grant: This is totally fascinating. You’re saying that I can be vulnerable without disclosing a ton about my emotions or my life.

Brown: Yes.

Grant: How? I have gotten feedback from people I work with that when there’s something difficult going on in my life, I don’t share much about it. My fear has been that when people know there’s something difficult going on in my life and I didn’t open up about it, they’re going to think that I’m not being honest or authentic with them or that I’m lacking vulnerability. You’re saying there are ways that I can maintain my privacy and still be vulnerable. Tell me more.

Brown: You can say, “I’m really struggling right now. I’ve got some stuff going on and it’s hard, and I wanted y’all to know. And I want you to know what support looks like for me is that I’ll check in with you if I need something or I may take some time off. Support also looks like being able to bring it up with you when it’s helpful for me but not having to field a lot of questions about it. That’s what I need right now.”

Grant: That is incredibly empowering.

For more workplace wisdom from Brené and Adam, listen to their full conversation here. Plus, listen to conversations with Adam and other inspiring individuals like Jane Goodall, Glennon Doyle, Malcolm Gladwell and Daniel Kahneman on this season’s WorkLife with Adam Grant podcast.

You can also listen to the full episode with Brené and Adam on TED.com just click below:

PAID HOLIDAYS FOR THE METAL INDUSTRY

With the long weekend coming up, many companies will be wondering how to apply and interpret the Public Holiday provisions in the Main Agreement. In this article, prepared by SEIFSA’s Industrial Relations Division, the application of Public Holidays is clarified.

All the Public Holidays specified in the Public Holidays Act are paid holidays for employees covered by the Main Agreement.

Employees covered by the Agreement are not required to work on a Public Holiday and are entitled to full pay if the day falls on an ordinary working day. Companies working a Monday to Friday work week are not required to pay employees for a Public Holiday if it falls on a non-working day, for example Saturday (24 September 2022) unless employees work on that day.

Working on a paid Public Holiday

Where an employee works on a paid Public Holiday the employee is entitled to: - The rate of pay for an ordinary shift; plus - One-and-a-third times the hourly rate for the hours worked.

If an employee works overtime i.e., hours in excess of the normal hours on that day, then he/she is entitled to an additional two-and-a-half times the hourly rate for those extra or overtime hours.

Where a Public Holiday falls on a Sunday

Public Holiday’s falling on a Sunday will be observed as a paid public holiday the following Monday. Employees who are called-in to work on a Sunday, which happens to be a Public Holiday, will be paid at Sunday rates i.e., double-time.

The one exception to this rule is where Christmas Day falls on a Sunday. Employees working on Christmas Day, which happens to be a Public Holiday, will be paid at the Public Holiday rate. This is due to the next day being Day of Goodwill.

Paid Public Holidays and shift workers

Difficulty often occurs where employees work a two or three-shift system, especially where part of the shift falls on the Public Holiday. In such a case, the worker will be paid for the shift before, during or after their shift as if it were a paid Public Holiday. Therefore, the whole shift, if not worked through the Public Holiday, irrespective of where it falls, will be paid on Public Holiday rates. Where the employee works overtime on that particular shift, they must be paid at two-and-a-half times for the overtime hours.

For example, a night-shift employee starts his shift at, say 18:00 on Thursday, 15 June 2022 and ends his shift on Friday, 16 June 2022. The part of the shift from midnight onwards falls on the Public Holiday. If the employee’s next shift starts at 18:00 on 16 June 2022, the option is to treat either the whole shift starting on 15 June or the whole shift starting on 16 June 2022 as the public holiday.

Annual leave and Public Holidays

If a Public Holiday falls within an employee’s annual leave on a day which would have been a normal working day, then the leave period must be extended by one day with full pay for the day. Where Public Holiday’s fall on a non-working day then the annual leave is not extended.

Public Holiday during periods of short-time or lay-off Any Public Holiday during a period of short-time or layoff must be regarded as falling on an ordinary working day, and the employee must be paid at the ordinary hourly rate for that day.

Work-in-time arrangements to extend Public Holidays Management and employees may agree to work time in, so that designated normal working days may be treated as paid holidays, thereby extending existing public holidays and creating long weekends. For example, 16 June 2022 falls on Thursday. The workforce may work on an elected non-working a such as a Saturday, in return for a paid holiday on Friday 17 June 2022. Requirements to implement this arrangement are management support, a 75 percent positive ballot amongst the workforce and an exemption from the Council.

Absence after or before a Public Holiday

Where an employee is absent the day before or the day after a Public Holiday, the employee does not lose his/ her entitlement to be paid for the public holiday. However, this does not absolve him/her from appropriate disciplinary action if the reasons for the absence do not validate his/her absence.

Where management requires further assistance, they should contact SEIFSA’s Industrial Relations Division (011) 298-9400.