A big organization, by definition, must ask its people to put their own individuality aside and work as a group. There is little room for some of the aspects of your life that are most central to you, be they religious beliefs or cultural traditions.
The ability to put these things aside at the workplace is an asset to your organization because your beliefs and traditions no doubt would conflict with those of others, until nothing could be accomplished other than arguing over decorations and the relative superiority of ethnic foods.
Nevertheless, putting these things aside in the workplace does not mean putting them aside in your life. To feel we have succeeded in life, we cannot conclude we have given up the things that really matter to us. Otherwise, what have we really accomplished?
Those who express satisfaction with their accomplishments know that they can never toss aside the beliefs, customs, and values that they hold dear. They just display them on their own time.
Bobby Richardson played second base for the New York Yankees in the 1950s and ‘60s. Bobby went to work in an atmosphere that differed so much from his sheltered religious upbringing that he could hardly describe it to his family back home.
He knew that he had to keep his religion in his life, but he also knew that he couldn’t bring it into the locker room or the dugout. That is why he helped found the Baseball Chapel.
Richardson’s group met off the field and out of the limelight, bringing together teammates and players from opposing teams to share their faith.
Bobby explains: “You have to do something to make sure you aren’t swallowed whole by the big leagues; then you’d never be the same again. But you can’t impose who you are on everybody else, so the Baseball Chapel let me be a teammate on company time and be who I really was on my time.”
Those who express the most satisfaction with their life and career tend to use a hybrid view of themselves. They see themselves as capable, team-oriented people on the job and as culturally and spiritually distinct people at home. Those who sacrifice their individual beliefs and backgrounds ultimately express one-third less satisfaction with their jobs and almost two-thirds less satisfaction with their lives.
Franklin and Mizell 1995