Category: Working Assets

On Not Revealing Everything

In my just-published book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers I wrote what I did from the perspective of an individual who has been employed at jobs for over 30 years.

Quite frankly coworkers don’t always want to hear about everything that’s going on in your life. A simple confession like: “I forgot to use deodorant this morning. I must get some at the drugstore now” doesn’t need to be brought to life.

IWDs–Individuals With Disabilities–aren’t given a free pass to have anything less than an acceptable demeanor on the job and elsewhere.

The remedy should be to flaunt our identity.

Yet I’m realistic that as persons who have been shut out of employment we have to work twice as hard to get half as far once we’re on the job.

Grateful to be given the job we’re often loyal and dedicated employees who outperform coworkers who don’t have disabilities.

This should give us a halo around our job performance that enables coworkers to view us favorably.

Not so fast. Seeking justice on one job I was denied a promotion.

Being a hard worker doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a stellar performance review and top-notch pay raise either. Something I will talk about in a future blog entry.

The playing field isn’t level. Which is why though on one job I could talk with coworkers about everything I chose not to.

In the coming blog entry I’ll talk about one surprise suggestion I offered in The World of Work chapter in Working Assets.

Disclosing Without Realizing You Have

I’ve published Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers. My target market is individuals living with mental health issues who have the desire and ability to work at a job.

Those of us with bipolar or schizophrenia or other illnesses have unique needs. In my new book I devote a whole chapter to Managing Your Mental Health on the Job.

The fact is that those of us with emotional issues who are employed often “disclose” without being aware that we’ve done this.

The host of a podcast (a woman living with schizophrenia) revealed that she can appear “spaced out” and this can make others think she’s on street drugs.

The woman jokes to the person she’s with that most likely they’d like her “to share” (the drugs) yet she is straight not high.

The fact is an impression is formed of a person within 7 seconds (yes!).

It’s a dual-edged reality: we want coworkers to have empathy for us when we appear “a little off” on the job. But will saying you have schizophrenia thus momentarily draw a blank elicit a favorable response from a coworker?

My guess is that we’re still not “there” yet in society. As a high numbers of peers with mental illnesses are unemployed to begin with.

How can we get “there” to where talking about our experiences helps us perform better on the job?

In my view disclosing on the job can make it harder to do our jobs when we then need to spend time navigating the after-effect of how coworkers responded.

The bottom line is: employers are concerned with their bottom line and how doing our jobs helps them earn money or whatever they’re in business to do.

How can we start to have an easier time at work while also fulfilling the duty we have to satisfy our company’s mission? Will being open and honest make it easier for us to do our jobs?

In coming blog entries I will talk about this in more detail. I take guidance from the 2022 DEI business books I’m checking out of the library and reading.

Covering Versus Being Candid

The concept of “covering” is one I will examine in detail in my second career book I’d like to publish within two years.

The question is whether someone with an “invisible” disability should be okay hiding in plain sight.

In Working Assets I examine the emotional cost of “living in a closet”–whatever it is you’re closeted in.

My story is out there in my memoir Left of the Dial, in my blogs, and on my author website.

I find it’s less of an issue to have people find out on their own. Rather than telling them outright.

My diagnosis in fact is an open secret. And I’m OK with this because “what you can’t see you can’t be.” My aim is to give others hope for healing.

All along since 2002 when I started my Advocate career I’ve believed that recovery is possible. In the face of being told that no one can recover at all.

What do you think? Have you disclosed and where and when and to whom?

Total Honesty Versus Too Much Information

In my just-published book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers Finding and Succeeding at a Job Living with a Mental Illness I give clear pros and cons of disclosing on the job.

This July 2022 I cohosted a Zoom workshop on Editorializing Lived Experience. The question arose: When does being honest veer into TMI–giving too much information?

As an Author and Advocate who keeps 3 different blogs I advance keeping private the things you don’t want to tell others. Nor should you tell others everything if you ask me.

Other bloggers rack up 15 or 16 “likes” with their kiss-and-tell blog entries. On the job it’s dice-y dishing about the details of your diagnosis.

In an ideal workplace coworkers would be free to get and receive support for whatever issue we’re facing whether emotional or otherwise.

The fact is what you tell one coworker might not be kept confidential between the two of you. I’m aware of a situation where another coworker was vocal in a public area about what one person told them in private.

This is the reality. Word gets around whether you want it to or not.

This is a decision we all face: what to reveal and what to keep private.

My preference is to choose carefully what I post in my blogs and what I tell people at work.

How do you feel about this?