Bring the whole package

The e-mail was a cut above most in its sophistication and argumentation. The writer was passionate, especially formidable, and I could not have disagreed with him more.

He complained about the “living room professional.” He explained, “That is, people behaving as if they are in their private space in the workplace. Working professionals should live two lives, one in the workplace and the other outside the workplace. You have to separate the personal from the professional. This view doesn’t ignore that people will develop personal relationships in the workplace, but it should be pointed out that to get that personal in the workplace, to inject the entirety of your personal being, has always created a negative outcome to the goals of a professional organization.”

My response was brief, but perhaps not that simple. I wrote: “You are obviously learned, intelligent and you have thought carefully about these issues. Despite all of that, I disagree with you. I believe you are espousing a dualism of self I cannot accept.”

Dualism is the term philosophers and psychologists use to explain that two things — like the mind and body — can function separately. The concept becomes relevant in workplace spirituality because people (such as the e-mailer) contend that we must bring only our bodies to work and leave our spirit, values and personal beliefs at home.

The issue goes to the core of whether we can find spirituality in work. I am convinced it is imperative that we reject dualism and embrace the fact that there is room in the workplace for the whole self — personal and professional.

The TV commercial for some sleep aid shows a man fishing when his body seemingly splits in two. The body moves on while the man’s mind is asleep. This clever imagery designed to show us that we desperately need our sleep is also helpful in showing why it’s impossible to separate our work self from our spiritual self. We cannot split ourselves into two parts.

To be healthy, the mind, body and spirit need to be an integrated whole. Most of us can agree that when you work you need your brain, your experience and your knowledge to be effective. People such as the e-mail writer would seem to build a wall around those attributes and argue they are all that is needed for effective work.

But it is positive attitude, a sense of duty, an interest in making a difference and a desire to be a part of something that contributes to a greater good that creates fulfilled workers and great companies. And, just as importantly, honesty, justice and honor insure American commerce runs well and that customers, shareholders and employees benefit. All of those are values honed in one’s “personal” life.

It is when we wall off those values from the workplace that we find scandal, crime and discord in the workplace. In one week in June these events occurred: three people were arrested in the Long Island Newsday circulation scandals where employees inflated the paper’s circulation; Dennis Kozlowski was convicted of looting millions of dollars for Tyco; the Rigas family, father and son, were convicted of similar acts at Adelphia Cable.

I argue it is when people fail to, in the e-mailer’s words, “inject the entirety of your personal being” into the workplace that negative outcomes like those business scandals result. It is when people leave behind the values that shaped them, abandon their spiritual pursuits and sacrifice it all to achieve personal gain that negative outcomes are created.

The dualist somehow rationalizes that the values he teaches his children and that he espouses in his community simply aren’t needed or won’t work in the professional setting. Dualists are wrong. We need to bring our hearts and our values to work.

Tip for your search: A great way to make sure you are taking all your values to work is to ask yourself if you would be willing to tell your family everything you do at work. If you’d rather not tell them about your gossiping ways, the way you handle certain accounts, or the way you report your expenses then it is time to change your ways.

Resource for your search: “Bringing Your Soul to Work” by Cheryl Peppers and Alan Briskin (Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc., 2000)