We all struggle with knowing what parts of ourselves to share with our coworkers, but some truths just need to be spoken. Which is why it’s so impressive that just this morning, Denise made a powerful move in the office: She announced to her entire office that she didn’t get a great sleep last night.
“I don’t know if I slept weird, or maybe I had coffee too late in the day yesterday?” Denise loudly shared as the entire company took their seats for their weekly all-staff meeting. “But I woke up to pee at 5am and then just couldn’t fall back asleep.”
Wow. We can’t believe she went there.
Denise had no idea what kind of reaction to expect. Would they judge her for only getting 6.5 hours of sleep? Would they treat her differently? What if she becomes branded as “Denise, that woman in Accounts who isn’t good at sleeping?” It’s simply too soon to tell.
But it’s a risk worth taking in order to normalize not sleeping well in the workplace.
Just moments ago, around 11am, Denise noticed that Sherri in Produce Development wasn’t at the 9am all-staff meeting. So Denise took on the emotional labor once again and trapped Sherri in her cubicle to share her tale of a lackluster night’s sleep.
“Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m pretty sure I had a nightmare,” Denise bravely shared as Sherri’s eyes completely glazed over. “Oh! I remember it now. I was at my middle school—but it wasn’t actually my middle school, but it my dream I knew it was my middle school you know?” We could all learn a thing or two from Denise’s unbridled emotional honesty.
This isn’t the first time Denise has bared her soul to her coworkers. Last week, she announced to each cubicle, one by one, that she was running out to Cosi for lunch if anyone wanted to join her. And a couple months back, she said upwards of 30 times throughout the day that her mouth was still feeling “kind of weird” after her trip to the dentist’s office the day before. When asked, many coworkers said, “She’s just that kind of person.”
We wish we could steal just a drop of Denise’s raw emotional power! But in the meantime, we’ll just have to do our best to follower her lead. Keep living your truth, girl!
