Your boss might not want to know the real you after all.
One of the many bits of career advice that emerged years ago and has somehow stuck around is the idea that we should bring our whole selves to work.
That doesn’t always work, and it’s looking a bit threadbare with age. Now that temperatures are rising, consider office attire:
“If you love wearing tight little leather outfits that are strapped on, I don’t want to see that,” said Margie Warrell, a leadership consultant and author of the book “The Courage Gap.”
“That’s not appropriate,” she said.
The whole-self idea is just one example of bumper-sticker wisdom that was meant to guide us through our careers but often doesn’t hold up.
It’s especially important now that caution about the prospects for the economy is causing some employers to slow or pause hiring. That hesitation is also making it harder for people who want to change jobs. So, not screwing up at work is all the more important.
Here are five bits of trite work advice — and what to consider instead.
Follow your passion
The impulse to align your work with what you love makes sense. Yet, feeling like you have to “find your passion” can also set you up to fail.
“That’s probably as vague as it gets,” said Jochen Menges, a professor of human resource management and leadership at the University of Zurich. “It’s not an actionable goal.”
He told Business Insider that a better approach would be to set goals around the emotion you want to feel in your work, like pride, even though you won’t necessarily experience that every day.
“If I align my emotional needs more with what I do — with my career prospects — then I’m a lot better off,” he said. That, in turn, will accelerate your career, Menges said.
Climb the corporate ladder
On a ladder, you can only go up or down.
Related stories
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
The idea of scaling a corporate hierarchy has become outdated for many workers, Christian Tröster, an Academy of Management scholar and a professor of leadership and organizational behavior at Germany’s Kühne Logistics University, told BI.
Instead, he said, people might want to think of what he called a “protean” career — one that changes shape over time.
Tröster said that rather than ascending a ladder, a better aim for many workers would be to become “psychologically successful.”
“The ultimate goal of your career is feeling proud and accomplished,” he said.
One practical reason you might not want to climb the ladder is that a push among some corporate leaders for “flatter” organizational structures — and an elimination of middle management — can mean there aren’t as many rungs for ambitious workers to grab onto.
“Careers today are no longer linear,” Warrell said. Instead, workers might opt for a lateral move, a side gig, or a so-called portfolio career — where you take on multiple jobs to earn a living while maintaining flexibility.
Warrell said workers who chart their own paths are often more fulfilled and successful than those who try to grind their way up an org chart.
Don’t job-hop
Career advice once often included the suggestion that workers avoid changing jobs for at least a year to avoid looking like they weren’t committed to an organization.
While a string of frequent job changes can raise concerns among prospective employers, Warrell said prohibitions on moving around often have softened.
She said “smart” job changes — even in quick succession — that indicate you’re taking on extra responsibility and developing new skills can add polish, not tarnish, to a résumé.
“It can be seen as a sign of ambition, adaptability — not instability,” Warrell said.
Focus on tech skills
Technical mastery — especially in hot areas like artificial intelligence — can take you far and often leave you with your pick of jobs, yet it’s not the only route to career success.
AI is already taking on some coders’ work, for example. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has said the company might not hire software engineers in 2025 because of its success in using AI agents to boost productivity.
In surveys, employers often say they’re after so-called soft skills — abilities like communication and teamwork.
Menges said one reason soft skills are important is that humans will often be needed to evaluate what AI produces.
To help do that, he said, workers will need to rely in part on emotion for guidance. Menges said that in the 20th century, workers were often told to sequester their feelings in the workplace.
“Now, you’ve got to bring those emotions back because whatever AI does needs evaluation, and that evaluation comes down to how we feel about what appears on our screens,” he said.
Bring your whole self to work
While it might have been well-intentioned, critics of the idea of showing up at work as the unvarnished version of yourself have long found it problematic.
Business leaders from Google’s Sundar Pichai to venture capitalist Marc Andreessen have pushed back on the concept.
Ella F. Washington, a professor of practice at Georgetown University, previously told BI a better way to think about the idea is to bring your whole professional self to work.
That might mean putting aside your politics or working with people you might not like. Or, Warrell said, it could mean pushing through a bad mood.
“If one part of your whole self is that you’re short-tempered and grumpy in the morning, don’t bring that self to work,” she said.
Do you have a story to share about your job hunt or career? Contact this reporter at [email protected].
An earlier version of this story appeared on March 3, 2025.
