The Professionally Unprofessional

Professionally unprofessional (noun): A person who defies the confines of historical constraints and notions of “professionalism” and who brings their full, authentic self forward in their work.

As we come back to the office after a long weekend filled with attitudes of gratitude and time spent with people we love, I’m so excited to be popping into your morning news feed and reading routine. This past week has helped instill in me the importance of deep, meaningful connections throughout every thread of my life. I often find myself valuing my professional connections to a higher degree than my close family and friends. Maybe that’s due to my #careerservices work and what I spend a lot of my days focusing on. Being closer to my immediate family and people whose support has been unwavering in every stage of my life reminded me to more openly express my thanks and appreciation.?

A bit about me: If you haven’t gotten to know me yet, my name is Ang, and I’m a Connecticut native who grew up in the not-so-wealthy, oh-so-country part of the state. I spent my childhood running around outdoors, feet caked with stains of romps in our quaint yard and squished blueberries from our family’s 50-year-old, sweetly ripened bushes, and took my undergraduate studies to Vermont. I worked with young children and adolescents for four wonderful years before moving to Boston last spring to start my higher education career.

Supporting people has always felt like a built-in onus of mine. I thought this would blossom among young children and their journeys through primary education, but I became grounded in supporting adult learners and career professionals through my work during my undergrad.

During my time at Champlain College, I worked in the career development office, otherwise known as the Career Collaborative. The most consistent and engaging position I had throughout college, my role as a Career Peer Coach helped ground my sense of purpose when it comes to holistic support, advice, and career navigation. I realized my desire to engage fellow students in their career development journeys was something that I wanted to take forward in my professional career.

By the end of my junior year, after a shortened study abroad experience in southern Spain and a lot of reflection, I began to look into ways to pursue higher education as a career.

Throughout this time, I was navigating my way through my final years of college and the ways in which I would make my “mark” on the professional world.

Puzzled by the complexities of career paths I didn’t yet understand and the ways in which I could impart my strengths on the workforce, I grappled with my #professional self and what that meant to me, for me.

Professionalism is something I’ve always pondered and remained skeptical of. As a concept, I grew to understand its place in the world of work – it often serves as a term and way of carrying oneself that differentiates one's workplace self from non-work activities, activities we’ve historically understood to be less formal, more casual, and separate from our working lives.

For myself, personally, I never really understood the importance or need for this. I knew myself and know myself pretty well now. Professionalism, as a construct and inherent form of bias across industries, was not designed to serve all of us in supportive ways.

The Washington Post released an article, “Colleges refocus on career services as students seek return on degrees,” that struck me as critical and timely to the work I do every day. While there are some criticisms of Gen Z solely viewing college as an investment they need a return on, I think the piece does a good job of affirming the need for career services across college campuses of all kinds.

But, the most recent comment on this article is a sight to behold. If you find yourself wondering why #professionalism is still a topic at the top of many minds, especially those minds of people in historically underrepresented groups, let statements from this comment remind you why we still need to keep the conversation going.

This commenter states, “Hide the tats, the chewing gum, the garish nails, the ear studs, etc. Guys: wear hard soled shoes, not athletic gear or casual wear. Girls: no 4 inch heels, sandals, boots. A classic court pump says you can keep up. Clothes should fit properly. No body parts hanging out. Look the part.”

In the eyes and standards of this commenter, I, with my five visible tattoos, ten ear piercings, worn-in Blundstone boots that I wear throughout the winter, and open-toed shoes I rock in the summer, am unfit for the professional world.

Think about your colleagues whose hair is not straight, whose attire is not Western, and whose culture is represented through their jewelry or vernacular or displays of beauty. There are still people in the working world who criticize and condemn talented people simply for the ways they show up to do their jobs. We still need to have this conversation.

This week, I...

This week, as a professionally unprofessional, I took my birthday off and celebrated by cleaning my apartment, spending time outside with a long walk to Trader Joe’s, and working on applications for something I’ll share soon.

Recently…

In response to a recent The Wall Street Journal

article that talks about employee dissatisfaction at work,

I think we could see the following:

??Companies may try to reinstate some more flexible policies in response to recent data that states that 34% of workers dread starting their workday (source: Alight survey).

??Managers may survey their employees to find out what they want and need out of their workplace environment in efforts to increase "intent to stay" durations, especially among early career and #GenZ hires.

?? More Chief People Officers, Chief Inclusion Officers, and other C-suite roles that emphasize belonging and wellbeing among employees could rise, despite declines after the surge of these and similar hires in 2020.