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Many people tie their identity to their occupation.

Work-based identity has benefits but also risks, including identity crisis after career disruption.

Flourishing requires a multi-dimensional identity.

“Remember not to ask anyone what they do,” I instructed my husband as we headed out to a party where we were going to be meeting many new people.

I had just learned that among some segments of Americans, it’s considered rude and irrelevant at social gatherings to ask what they do for a living. Why? Many see their job as merely what they do to put food on the table and a roof over their heads, and it has nothing to do with who they are or their value as a person.

When work becomes identity

I humbly admit that this idea initially blew my mind. For many Americans, we define ourselves first by our occupation: “I’m a professor" (or a physician, an artist, a teacher, an attorney, a nurse, a business owner, a landscaper, an athlete, a stay-at-home parent, etc.).

Clearly, people are drawn to occupations that fit their personality traits, and in turn, their occupational choices shape their personalities, so there is a reciprocal relationship between personality and occupation (Wille & De Fruyt, 2014).

But is it wise to base our identities almost entirely upon our occupations?

Work-based identities can provide a strong sense of purpose (Walsh & Gordon, 2008). Such identities give a sense of uniqueness and yet simultaneously belonging—uniqueness from those outside our profession but belonging with those within it (Knez, 2016). We may enjoy a sense of community among those in the same profession (e.g., healthcare, military, academia, first responders) and feel we are a part of something larger than ourselves (de Sousa Oliveira, 2024).

There are other benefits as well. Those with strong occupation-based identities are highly engaged in their work (Bothma & Root, 2012), committed to their jobs, and are likely to put in a great deal of time and effort pursuing mastery and thus enjoy long-term career growth. These are all positive—but there is a downside.

The risks of over-identifying with work

People whose identity and self-worth revolve around their careers are more likely to work excessively and spend too much time working to the detriment of other areas of their lives, such as family, friends, health, hobbies, and spirituality. This overworking and lack of work-life integration (a.k.a. work-life balance) can lead to burnout, emotional exhaustion, and diminished well-being. And based on Brigid Schulte’s book Over Work: Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life, it may also be related to workaholism, a true affliction that is sadly very prevalent here in the U.S. as well as Japan and South Korea, characterized by a compulsion to work to the detriment of one’s well-being coupled with the experience of anxiety and guilt when not working (Clark, Smith & Haynes, 2020; Schulte, 2024). So, overly identifying with our jobs can be maladaptive.

This becomes very evident when one’s job is altered through involuntary changes such as layoffs, an injury, or AI reducing the need for their role. Then it can become particularly distressing and lead to an identity crisis on top of the potential financial crisis.

Even voluntary changes such as retirement can be exceedingly distressing to those who define themselves entirely by their professional role and suddenly struggle to figure out who they are if they are not a... [insert profession here].

Building a multi-dimensional identity

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” This has a variety of meanings. It can mean that we shouldn’t put all our hopes on just one outcome. In terms of personal finance, it means we need a diversified portfolio, a mix of stocks, bonds, cash, and other assets, so that when one asset category is in decline, we’re protected by others that are growing.

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But the same goes for our identity. Researchers recommend cultivating a multi-dimensional identity in which our occupation is one important component but not the only important component in order for us to flourish in life (VanderWeele & Lomas, 2023).

In fact, the Global Flourishing Study of over 200,000 adults in 22 countries was recently released, and it describes human flourishing as truly multi-dimensional (Gallup, 2025; Lomas, Pawelski, & VanderWeele, 2023). This research finds that there are six critical components to flourishing in life:

Happiness and life satisfaction

Mental and physical health

Close social relationships

Financial and material stability

Notice that one’s career or job is not directly listed here. But relationships, health, meaning, and purpose are major contributors to flourishing in life.

In this first quarter of the year, consider what flourishing means to you. Is it all about your career and work? Likely not. So which of these components of flourishing would have the biggest positive impact on your life if you spent more time and energy on them?

This year, consider rounding out your identity. If you are prone to identifying yourself in terms of your career, intentionally build at least one other element of your life into your personal identity. Perhaps it’s a family role (I’m a dog-mom), a social role (I’m a volunteer; I’m a caregiver), a hobby (I’m a cornhole player; I’m a knitter), or even your values (I’m a lover of the arts; I’m a person of faith). There are so many options. So begin to not only think of yourself as such, but begin to introduce yourself that way, too, instead of by your career.

To that end, “Hi, my name is Meredith, and I’m a mom of two humans and two cats, a wife, a data geek, a fiction-reader, an educator, a yogi, a lover of the water, and a traveler with a fondness for foods that start with the letter “c” (coconut, caramel, coffee, chocolate).”

Bothma, F.C., & Roodt, G. (2012). Work-based identity and work engagement as potential antecedents of task performance and turnover intention: Unravelling a complex relationship. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology /SA Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde, 38(1), Art.#893. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v38i1.893

Clark, M.A., Smith, R.W., & Haynes, N.J. (2020). The multidimensional workaholism scale: Linking the conceptualization and measurement of workaholism. Journal of Applied Psychology, 105, 1281-1307.

de Sousa Oliveira, S. A., Santos de Carvalho, C. M., Sousa Pinto, A. L., & Guedes Gondim, S. M. (2024). Emotional labor, occupational identity, and work engagement among Portuguese first responders. Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 40 (3), 179-194. https://doi.org/10.5093/jwop2024a15

Gallup, Inc. (2025). The Global Flourishing Study: What Contributes to a Well-Lived Life. Gallup: Washington, DC.

Knez, I. (2016) Toward a model of work-related self: A narrative review. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 331.

Lomas, T., Pawelski, J. O., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2023). A flexible map of flourishing: The dynamics and drivers of flourishing, well-being, health, and happiness. International Journal of Wellbeing, 13(4), 1-38. https://doi.org/10.5502/ijw.v13i4.3665.

Schulte, B. (2024). Over work: Transforming the daily grind in the quest for a better life. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

VanderWeele, T. J., & Lomas, T. (2023). Terminology and the well-being literature. Affective Science, 4, 36-40.

Walsh, K. & Gordon, J. (2008). Creating an individual work identity. Human Resource Management Review, 18, 46-61.

Wille, B., & De Fruyt, F. (2014). Vocations as a source of identity: Reciprocal relations between Big Five personality traits and RIASEC characteristics over 15 years. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99, 262-281.

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