Crying At Work

If you prescribe to the idea that it’s best to hire for attitude and train for skill, I wonder if you agree that crying on the job is better than holding in the tears - that people with a good attitude are also perhaps more socially aware, open, connected, caring, humble, willing to improve, team players and, I suppose, not afraid of a few tears. In other words, good hires. Apparently clinical psychologist Cord Benecke once said non-crying people have a tendency to withdraw and be less connected to others. I think crying at work is probably underappreciated. First, there’s a lot of good that comes from being moved to tears - it just feels good. Crying is also no doubt one way to convey what you’re really feeling - it might also give your colleagues a chance to be human and help you and others put whatever is going on in some context. Emotional tears are chemically different from the ones that spring when you’re chopping onions. These emotional tears hold more protein than other types of tears, which sounds good - maybe someone ought to make a product out of that. As a general rule, crying out of a fear, self-doubt, worry over performance is probably a much more honest way to communicate than holding it all in. Crying in an interview may be risky unless it’s coming from being moved by the opportunity, as a way to show passion and, well, maybe even anxiety over the job. I think crying should be added to resumes, perhaps under “skills” though that doesn’t seem exactly right. A group of 9 HR managers I asked said if they saw “crying” on a resume that they might actually be more apt to reach out - “it would be different, that’s for sure,” Bailey Forest says. There’s obviously no crying in baseball but maybe it ought to be encouraged at work. I cry about once a day if I’m being honest - though more often than not while watching a movie with music. My bride will cry at commercials, or if I buy her green tea. In our poll of 36,912 youth ages 8 to 18 we found that attitudes about crying vary widely - like kids with brothers and sisters say crying is normal in their house, while more kids who are the only child say it isn’t, but there is some consensus - just 20% of the boys and about 25% of the girls think it’s okay to cry at school or in any kind of job - in other words most think it’s not okay - and about 80% say they feel sad and want to help when they see their mom or dad cry. There are a lot of famous cries. There’s the wolf and the battle and the river, and who can forget the comedian, Jon Crier. Crying in healthcare situations is a bit of a paradox, a sign of many things - both happiness from a miracle to sadness after losing a life. Interesting how both can kind of look the same. We asked adults if they want their doctors and nurses to cry and, interestingly, 67% do not want their doctors to cry, but 84% do want their nurses to. I suppose that may be more about the roles and situations these practitioners are put in - like surgery vs. hospice. Our youngest Tommy once cried so much after his favorite hoops team Gonzaga lost in the tournament. “I don’t know why I’m crying,” he said as the tears burst. “It’s because this meant something to you bud,” I said, “just let it out…there’s always next year.”