
Authenticity promotes well-being in life and at work - hhs
https://www.forbes.com/sites/traversmark/2019/11/29/authenticity-promotes-well-being-in-life-and-at-work/
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Ididntdothis
This reminds me of the old saying “honesty is the key to a successful
relationship. If you can fake that you have made it”. At least in work you
have to make way too many trade offs in order to survive so you can’t be
really authentic. Some people are lucky that they fit in perfectly but I don’t
think that’s true for most people.

It’s also much easier to be authentic if you are driven by an urge to succeed
as measured by the business world or if you have a desire to fit in wherever
you are. What can you do if you are wired to be driven by things that have no
commercial value or don’t fit with the mainstream?

~~~
viburnum
Yeah, if I was my real self I would probably get punched. I can fake it most
of the time but if I get run down and my real self comes out then everybody
hates me.

~~~
cameronbrown
What the 'real you' means can be left up to debate.

Imo trying to live up to our own expectations of ourselves isn't faking it,
but we don't always manage to live up to them either.

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sixhobbits
> This amounted to 51 studies, 75 independent participant samples, and over
> 36,500 participant observations. The researchers then tallied the
> correlations between these measures.

Meta analysis can be interesting if done well, but a lot of the time it simply
reinforces the publication bias / bottom drawer effect, and people who create
meta studies are unlikely to closely examine the quality of each individual
study.

I intuitively agree with the conclusion but the study itself looks like GIGO

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missosoup
This is all fine and well for people whose authentic self is aligned to
whatever is socially preferable in their particular work environment. An all-
inclusive work environment is not possible in today's highly polarised
society.

E.g. an individual expressing their authentic right-wing views at a place like
Google with their 'bring your whole self to work' mantra clearly wouldn't work
out well.

The real title should be: finding a workplace where you _can_ be authentic
promotes well-being in life.

~~~
harlanji
I wish I could explain this to people, as a major reason for being homeless in
SF. I have many right-wing views and am as authentic as possible, which leads
to severe ostracization in most environments. Kicked out of all friend groups
post-Trump. I get along with the police, actually thought it’d be funny to
apply to a PD last night. Obviously saying that I am ostracized for having
right wing views and attitudes is triggering to 90% of people here. I stay
because I am non-soy vegan/jain, and also attend a lot of meetups and lay low.
I do get kicked out and picked on for frivolous reasons/litmus tested. I am a
non-Churchian Christian, really at a loss for where to find leads into a
coding job. Before Trump my career was great, now I am lucky to work 8 hours a
week of odd jobs. We really need to work on accepting authenticity.

~~~
lazyjones
I've met people who feel treated like you before. They were usually rather
obnoxious in their display of their political opinions. I'm not saying you
are, but you might want to stick to living by your views instead of letting
everyone know what they are at the earliest opportunity. Just be more
diplomatic about it, both sides will benefit without anyone changing their
views.

~~~
larnmar
You’re probably right about the OP, who has managed somehow to alienate his
way into homelessness, a rather extreme case.

On the other hand, selection bias. For every “out and proud” right-winger in
the valley getting lynched by an angry mob, there’s hundreds more
conservatives, libertarians and even centrists keeping their heads down and
trying to avoid political conversations because they know that being their
“authentic selves” in such a situation would be a career-limiting move.

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politelemon
> Authenticity is defined by psychologists as the act of expressing one’s true
> self,

Can HN give me some concrete or specific examples of expressing one's true
self? I must admit the first line from the article has already stumped me.

~~~
ThrowawayR2
Have you ever had to pretend to be enthusiastic about project decisions you
didn't agree with? Have you ever had to mask what you would like to say to
prevent conflict with a problematic manager or co-worker? Have you ever had to
force yourself to be polite, cheerful, and friendly to a customer who really
didn't deserve the courtesy?

Other examples:

[https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/04/26/custom...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2019/04/26/customer-
service-workers-forced-smile-may-turn-drinking-alcohol/3588408002/)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_mask_syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smile_mask_syndrome)

[https://digest.bps.org.uk/2017/02/24/theres-such-a-thing-
as-...](https://digest.bps.org.uk/2017/02/24/theres-such-a-thing-as-autism-
camouflaging-and-it-might-explain-why-some-people-are-diagnosed-so-late/)

~~~
larnmar
When you put it that way, authenticity sounds like a terrible idea. But I
don’t think authenticity needs to be defined in opposition to professionalism.

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xwdv
Does not bringing up details about you that others might find reprehensible
still count as being authentic?

How can you be authentic if others will find you rotten?

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lazylizard
All the world's a stage n all the men n women in it merely actors? Usually i m
polite. Most of the time i am weird. Because i choose to work n hang out with
ppl who tolerate my weirdness. Sometimes i dial it back because cost benefit
analysis. I mean. Ppl need psychiatric help because their weirdness affect
their everyday life, right? Dial it back here n there. And life goes on a bit
more pleasantly. Not 16yo anymore. No need to be angry all the time? As teh
ancient chinese say. 1 kind of rice feeds 100 kinds of ppl.

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rpmisms
This seems like it's encouraging Google's "bring your whole self to work"
policy, which is wonderful, unless your job is in a toxic environment, or
otherwise draining. I dialed back my amount of self brought to work at my
previous job, and found that despite my constant dissociation, I was able to
function better both at home and in the office.

I'm not recommending that strategy, but it can make a difference for someone
in a position they're working on leaving.

~~~
scottLobster
The key phrase is "working on leaving" which is arguably the most authentic
act in such a situation, and is likely to promote well-being in the long run.

An inauthentic act would be to dissociate but have no plans to leave. Sadly
that describes most of my co-workers at the moment, and sure enough they're
just riding the miserable train to retirement for the most part. Not a route
I'd recommend.

~~~
rpmisms
It's miserable, but if it works and there's other reasons to stay, like job
security, it's worth it for some people.

~~~
sgt101
I think it also depends on how far you've got to go. Anyone can do 18mths, but
doing it for 20 years is sad.

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ErikAugust
[https://beta.trimread.com/articles/551](https://beta.trimread.com/articles/551)

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HammockWarrior
My authentic self typically doesn't want to wake up early and go to work. My
authentic self also doesn't want to be homeless.

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neonate
[https://outline.com/qacsGU](https://outline.com/qacsGU)

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dk3
You can certainly not bring your authentic self to HN. Right dang?

~~~
dang
On the contrary, I wish more people would. But sometimes people take authentic
self to mean something like purely individual expression, without regard for
the commons or the needs of others. I don't think that can be right.

Most times when commenters here break the site guidelines, it doesn't feel
like they're expressing their authentic self at all, but rather that they're
avoiding doing that by attacking someone or something. If they would simply
share their actual experience, it would be fine. But that's not so easy for
most of us.

Most oppositional behaviors are just inversions of conformist behaviors—the
same thing, with one bit flipped. Whatever authentic means, that can't be it.

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cuntAIDS
Hmmm, authenticity...

You mean sort of like the uh, _direct opposite_ of what Hacker News promotes
in its comments sections?

~~~
dang
What feels authentic to you about making accounts called cuntAIDS, analHooker,
and analCunt to post this comment three times? Serious question.

