If you ever felt the need to change your personality for a job, how did that go?

12 comments

1. I’m neurodivergent so I have never worked a job with my real personality unmasked, and I’m still employed, so… so far so good.

2. I’ve absolutely acted more bubbly at a retail job than I actually am. It gets tiresome but it works.

3. Yeah, I have a customer service voice, bubbly, friendly, polite 110% fake bullshit cause I’d get fired for being myself 😂

4. I had a job where all of my colleagues were on the more, uh, loud and brash side of things, so I felt like I “had” to act like I was perfectly fine with that kind of lack of a filter because I didn’t want to come across as a killjoy. It wasn’t a big thing, I got a bit annoyed and tired whenever I had to pretend being entertained by some topic I absolutely wasn’t comfortable even hearing about, but it worked.

5. Ive not had to change my personality but ive had to think about what i say in my highly conservative trump supporting majority shop. Theres good days and bad days. Some days they say such stupid shit that i cant not say anything. But most days its not worth the heckling and hassle or the stress.

   I didnt quite know how conservative the shop majority is but theyre covid denying , gun toting, trump supporting, “black lives matter is stupid” type of older people. For reference, im not 30 yet and they’re late 40s to late 60s so there’s a big generational gap.

   Im just here for a paycheck and to work on cars. Miss me with that political shit at work. It was quite the shock when the pandemic started to see just how far right the group is though.

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7. I work in a far right/conservative Christian workplace. I am progressive, non-religious and bi/lesbian. I have to keep my mouth shut so hard.

   Granted, I live in an area of the US that votes that way as well, so I have known how to keep my mouth shut all of my life so far. It’s just different in a workplace, because I feel like I can’t differ from the norm or I might lose the job.

   Having the job is important for various reasons, so I just have to deal with it until I move.

8. Fine. I always have my “professional me” for any kind of work situation, so I just adjust that as needed for the work environment. It can get exhausting sometimes to feel like you always need to be “on” rather than being just your natural self, but that’s just part of having a job in my experience.

9. I’m very happy-go-lucky, bubbly, mom-like person when I work in daycare. I do love it. People think I’m the innocent younger church going girl.

   In reality I’ll sell my body for a box of diapers for my own kids. Which is why I work in daycare.

10. I’m a nurse so I have to pretend to be far more empathic and warm than I really am around patients. I’m still employed and many patients have stated that I am their favorite nurse. This has been in multiple settings from the hospital to SNFs and these days, hospice and home health. I’ve never masked around co-workers but they like me. They think that my “dark humor” is hilarious. They have no idea that I am often being serious.

11. Almost everyone has to tone something down for any job that involves other people. I’ve had to be more bubbly than I actually am or completely cover up my tattoos/piercings or keep my leftist beliefs under wraps. It’s always been fine.

12. About as well as you can expect: I dropped $60k on the degree and only lasted three years in the field. Luckily, it’s a versatile degree, and when jumbled together with my other work and accomplishments, it makes me look less socially awkward than I truly am.