Crying at Work Boosts Women’s Career

Most people dread crying at work, but it seems that it only helps women jump high in career. According to Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, it is okay for women to cry at work. She asserted that she attributes a part of her career success to her tears. While doling out career advice to graduating students through her speech at Harvard Business School, the 42-year old gave details about how she became successful in Silicon Valley and addressed gender issues at work. She said that she cried at work, told people that she cried at work, talked about her hopes and fears and asked other people to tell her about theirs and that she is honest about her strengths and weaknesses that she hopes other people be too.

A study that had followed the lines of finding out how crying affects career success found that tears at workplace do not have the same suicide stigma that people had when it came to their career. About 40% of women had, in the test, revealed that they cried and work and men, who revealed the same comprised 9%.

According to Anne Kreamers new book, Its Always Personal: Emotion In The New Workplace, in most workplaces, crying does not affect workplace performance and in some cases, the ability to express is viewed as an asset to the company.

Sandberg, however, pulled ones attention to genuine tears from manipulative waterworks by cautioning the listeners against dishonest weeping. She added that as one tries to be more authentic in his/her communication, he/she must also strive to be more authentic in a broader sense by making his/her whole self to work.

The speech has taken over twitter and is being talked about with great interest. Most people seem to be questioning the ethics of workplaces where weeping may not be acceptable.