Crying at Work

I am literally the last person in the world to watch Brene Brown’s Netflix special, The Call to Courage, so I will also be literally the last person to share what I gleaned from it. The general takeaway is that vulnerability is not a weakness, but a strength. And the thing that I’m wrestling with is her admonition that vulnerability is not disclosure. I think I often overshare and feel like I’m being brave, when really, there is little risk. But mostly: She talks a lot about how important it is to be vulnerable at work, a space where we spend like 80 percent of our lives. But I wonder if and how you can truly be vulnerable if you work at like a rental car facility or if you’re a lawyer overturning wrongful convictions. Aren’t there jobs were it’s truly your job to not be vulnerable? Can you be both professional and vulnerable? And HOW LUCKY AM I, to work in a space where it is literally my job to be vulnerable? It is my job to turn to my co-worker, back when Co-workers sat in rooms together, be it in a writer’s room or play rehearsal, turn to them in full tears, and say: this is my biggest darkest most humiliating truth and / or fear. And it is my co-worker’s job to fully hug me, if not climb onto my lap, and share theirs. If nothing else, I have found the EXACT RIGHT LINE OF WORK, FOREVER.

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