Work and Respect

So much of our time is spent working that it becomes a sort of identity for us. It becomes who we are, we can sometimes find ourselves thinking in ways that relate to our jobs. And when we meet someone for the first time, it is not uncommon for them to ask “what do you do?” and not only is it accepted that we understand that they are asking about our job and not the way we cook or watch TV or play sport, it is also acceptable that they make small but significant assumptions about our personality and who we are based around what we do to make money. While these assumptions may be true in some cases, they are generalizations. While we may spend a significant part of our time working, particularly if we work full time, our job does not define who we are, or how we interact with the world. While we try to choose a job that suits who we are, the reality is that many of us just fall into the positions, we do what our parents did, or we do what we got the marks to do, or we do that job that we just happened to be offered when we were between jobs. All in all most people work so that they may have money, and they are not bankers, or cleaners, or teachers, or doctors or train drivers, they are all just people.