by Townee Zachary Bisenio

We have all grown up to an understanding of what life is in the workforce – serious about the desk job 24/7, no more party life after work, stress eating daily to submit a report before the end of business day.  For most employees, they would agree that these are necessary sacrifices to get the six figures, the promotion, and the added bonuses at the end of the year.  As a result, we think that being successful in the workforce requires stripping ourselves of what makes us human.  Fortunately, after a series of conversations with human resources (HR) practitioners and a law school professor in MyTown Talks, being a professional is not about letting go of what makes us human; it is entirely about being human.

Because We are Understanding Who We Are…
And it starts with understanding who we are, the selves that are not impressed on us by the world.  They are the selves that we “are”.  All of us are products of our own experiences, and it is our job to be honest with ourselves and recognize bits of our lives that make us “us”.  In writing our resumes and attending job interviews, that includes what we are capable and incapable of – our strengths and our weaknesses.  So yes, graduating honors, becoming student body president, and completing 20 courses in Udemy are not the only ones that make a candidate but also hating Karens, procrastinating, and sleeping at 4am.

And that’s okay.  Admitting to ourselves these gives us ideas of what makes us happy in and out of work.  Economists from the University of Warwick would support this claim based on their 2009 published research on happiness (Oswald, Proto, Sgroi 2009).  In an experiment of more than 700 employees – half of which were shown a comedy film or given free food while the others were asked about their loved ones who passed away – results have shown that “the happiness treatment increases people’s productivity by approximately 12%…[while] having had a bad life event in the previous two years lowers people’s performance…by approximately 10%” (Oswald, Proto, Sgroi 2009).  Hence, if adding plants into the office table, tearing away an ex’s photo, and watching K-drama before working makes one happy, then by all means, g!