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How Workplaces Quietly Expect You to Have the Same Beliefs
It wasn’t about being told what to think. It was about learning what not to question. I didn’t notice the expectation right away. At first, work just felt like work—projects, deadlines, meetings that blurred…
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What It’s Like Being Expected to Have a Personal Brand at Work
Somewhere between feedback cycles and social posts, I realized that the invitation to be myself at work came with an asterisk: as long as that self could be “branded.” When the phrase “personal brand”…
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Why I’m Tired of Pretending to Care About Company Morale
At some point, morale stopped feeling like a shared mood and started feeling like another expectation I had to manage. I remember when the word morale first entered my work life in a serious…
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Why I Feel Out of Place in a Workplace That Celebrates Everything
Somewhere along the way, constant celebration stopped feeling welcoming and started feeling like a performance I didn’t rehearse for. There is almost always something being celebrated now. A milestone. A month. A value. A…
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What It’s Like Being the Only One Who Doesn’t Post About Work Online
I didn’t opt out loudly. I just stayed quiet long enough for it to mean something. I didn’t notice it at first. People had always posted about work online—announcements, promotions, team photos, conference selfies.…
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How Company Values Started Feeling Like a Script I Had to Memorize
I didn’t wake up one day disagreeing with company values. I woke up realizing I had learned how to recite them. I can still remember the first time I heard our values read out…