Well, I would usually start spitting out a line or two from the Webster on this issue, however, since finding that the word "work" took up almost a whole page, I'll forgo it just this once........except to say......according to Webster, work is a pretty important thing. I'll also share that the word produce is used quite often in the definition, which is not all that surprising. Most of us work in order to produce a particular thing......or offer a particular service. We do it so much that we almost become what we do. We wake up with it, navigate the day with it, ponder it at lunch, with friends, with our family, and then we fall asleep with it on our minds. In fact I'm sure another blog could be written dealing with work and sleepless nights.
Now why do you think we are all so consumed with the issue of work? Well, in order to buy what we need, we have to have money, which requires us to work. Simply the way the world is set up. And usually at a young age, we have already identified what our skills are, and how we plan to make a living for ourselves and our families. Whether it's a skill that requires college or not, is not really the issue here, but rather how our skills begin to reflect who we are in the world, and how we feel about that. There is a considerable amount of pride that comes into play when we think about our jobs, that is if you really like what you do. Again....a whole other topic to write about........people who hate their jobs. I'll just say this, you'd be surprised at how many people out there hate what they do, and can find no way to change that.
Now let's say you got lucky and discovered your gift or skills at some point in your life, and were able to venture out and find a job that makes you feel very productive, proud, and grants you a certain feeling of accomplishment in life. This is good, right? You even like it when someone asks you what you do, because it gives you an opportunity to stand up straight, show someone how smart or creative you are, which of course automatically lets them know around how much money you most likely have coming in each year. Again.....this is a good thing because we all want to feel good about ourselves, and to let others know that you are doing your part in the world....that you can make your own way......and that you have chosen a profession that you can take pride in, especially if the person asking you has a job where they make considerably less money, or in fact has just lost their job, or are too sick to work.
AH....yes.........now we get to the meat of the whole issue......is our job who we really are. Now if you do have a job that you really like and feel a sense of satisfaction about, make decent money, and can buy all the "stuff" you like, then you can pretty much stand in front of the mirror in the morning with a smile on your face and feel a genuine sense of adoration for yourself, right? You see the pride, the intelligence, the level of productivity, the family legacy of a good and solid work ethic. You may not have everything that you wanted in life, and could be happier with a bigger paycheck or nestegg, or retirement plans.......but still with those little unknowns, you can still make it through the primping in the mirror at any given moment.
Now that you're feeling good about yourself, imagine going into work tomorrow and having your boss tell you he has to let you go. Or that your investments just went south, and you have to start all over again at age 60. Or that you still have a job, but you'll have to figure out a way to do it at home, because of the need to cut back on overhead issues at work. Whether it was something you did that caused the layoff, or whether the recession just pulled the rug out from under you, it doesn't matter. The fact remains.......you have just realized that your life is going to be completely different without your job in about a thousand different ways, and so the shock sets in. The alarm clock is still set for 6, so you can get up and get ready for work, have your breakfast, and out the door by 7. Your body has been conditioned for the last 15 years to move, react, function, and prepare itself for a day of work. Whether the work is fastpace, easy going, or even if you have a job at home, where the workload and productivity is still the same, you just happen to do it in your jammies instead of a suit. Seemingly lucky group, but you are still expected to produce no matter what the dress.
Now maybe you're lucky, and your spouse has a good job, or maybe you have some good investments that will tide you over until you find another job, or you've been waiting for an opportunity to go back to school and change your career anyway. These are things that help lessen the blow of losing your job, or being asked to go part time. However......oh man......that word....can either be a brick or a dose of hope kickin in............let's go with someone who just walked outside after being fired with no umbrella and the clouds unload the rain of the century. You not only look like a drowned rat.....you feel like one as well.
Your daily life that you felt was safe and gave you a sense of accomplishment and continuity just got flushed down the drain.....and took your sense of who you are, your self worth, your way of identifying yourself, with it. Seemingly never to be heard from again. At that moment, the fear sets in, the frantic notions of no open doors hits you, and dead on....all at once. Lately it seems that the hog dog venders on the corners, should be replaced with shots of bourbon to ease the shock. If you're not a praying or spiritual person.......I'm sure that would be a welcomed sight.
My point here......and I do have one believe it or not is.........why are we so identified with our jobs to the point that we feel we are nothing without one? Our jobs are not who we are as a person, it's not our self worth, or the things we feel at the core. It's just how we make money to pay for the things that we need. And I know......everyone wants the job that brings in the most money so you can buy the best things in life........but if you take a careful look around sometime, you'll see that the large percentage in the world are low income, or poverty level people. Most often people who had no choice in the matter as to what their profession would be, or even think about having the best things in life. They never even had the chance to identify themselves with what they do in life......they're just surviving.
Now this is not the blog that bashes those who are fortunate to have a good job, and most likely will never lose that job, nor is it about the ones that have worked hard for a long time, make good money, and feel they deserve the best things in life. Or to stand at the corner and hand out dollar bills to those poor people on the street instead of buying the next thing you think you need. This is about what happens to people when they lose their job.......and how it can become a wonderful opportunity to rethink, ponder, re-evaluate your life goals...and more importantly.......who you are as a person. Because once you lose that job, and think your identity was lost as well, then you're left with something to think about....bad or good. And the first time you walk out the door of your house, and run into your neighbor who has not lost his job, you see him as lucky, worthy, fortunate, wise, intelligent....and about 100 other words that identify him as being something better than yourself.
So you go inside, shut the door, have another cup of coffee, and shuffle around in your robe and socks wondering not only why, but what the heck are you suppose to do now? You sit at the kitchen table, looking out the window, take a deep breathe and remember......oh wait.....I do get a months wages coming to me....so we can still eat and not lose our home, at least for right now. But, then you realize.....what then? So again......the mind takes over and it boils down to "self" and what a loser you are, or how surely you're not the type person who would or could lose their job....its just not possible. What will the neighbors and your peers think about you now?
Now there are either some of you out there who have been through this.......or some of you petrifide that you could go through this.......or you're thanking God that you will never have to go through this.......doesn't matter. The bottom line is, is it right to go through life totally identifying yourself with what you do. I would have given up years ago if I had decided I was not worth living on this planet if I saw myself as being sick and nothing else. Being sick is just part of who I am, it's not how I identify myself. So I take what is left and deal with it the best way I know how. Of course this is easy for me to say now, I've been in the position for many years now, but trust me, when you get the rug pulled out from under you physically, and can no longer venture out and be as productive as those around you......you can have a major crisis of self worth, or lack there of.
So, there has to be some way for those who have lost their job, or had it altered in some way with less income, to see they've been given an opportunity to change their life, as opposed to feeling they have lost their identity. Even with all the adjustments you're likely to make or have to make to survive.......it doesn't mean that you have to lose your work ethic, or your need to be productive.....it just means that you might have to think about another way to accomplish those things. It's like turning 80 before you're ready........what do I, or can I possibly do now that I'm 80? Well, even if you are too old to work, you're still the same person at the core that you were when you were working.
There is no point in asking why........trust me on this one ok? If anything....you can learn to ask yourself why not. If you think you are so special, so intelligent, so together, so fortunate, so anything.......that you could or would never be in a position to lose your job......therefore lose your self identity.......then you will always be attached at the hip to your job and never really know who you are without it. If you consider yourself a wise person because of what you do for a living, then you should be able to still see yourself as worthy and wise without nothing.
So.....if you lost your job.....remember.......things happen for a very good reason, even if we don't always know what that reason is.......but it's not the end of you......its the beginning of something new and hopefully exciting. If adjustments need to be made.....then simply make them. You won't be the first person who had to sell their Mercedes for a VW Beetle....and move into a one bedroom apartment. Besides.......thats called adventure living in my book!
