I am not my job title!
More than 20 years ago when I was unexpectedly laid off for the first time, I learned many valuable lessons. I learned that my happiness wasn't determined by my job title, the amount of money I had in the bank, what kind of car I drove, or the number of hours I spent reading self-help books. My happiness was an inside job. It was determined by my beliefs, conditioning, experiences. I also learned that "bad things happen to good people" and that it was my inner dialogue that determined if I saw the glass as half full or half empty. Being single and self-supporting, I didn't like being laid off but, in retrospect, I'm very grateful for the experience. It made me a more compassionate person and changed the way I view myself and the world.
After trying to land a new job for weeks without any luck, I decided to work as a temp. I worked as a receptionist, a human resources specialist, a clerk who verified the math for estimators working on government contracts and had a variety of other titles. Every few days or weeks I wore a different hat which determined how I was treated. Having a Master's Degree and having held an upper management position prior to the lay off, I found it interesting that, when I performed a clerical function, others perceived me as being less than I was. Two weeks before I was treated with great respect because I was a district training manager for a national telecommunications company and two weeks later some how I lost all my intelligence, knowledge, training and experience. Yet, I was exactly the same person.
Having been actively pursuing my personal and spiritual development before and after my lay off, I had a wonderful opportunity to reevaluate my own long-held beliefs about job titles. I realized that I was just as guilty of stereotyping people based upon their job titles. I only saw the function a person was performing and assumed that the job titled defined the person. It didn't.
For eight hours a day, somebody might make widgets and then go home and be responsible for the well being of a family and, in that capacity, be a wonderful problem solver, leader, fund raiser, accountant, mechanic, engineer, cook, decorator, teacher...the list goes on. A person's job title is only one iota of who that person is and what he or she is capable of doing and being.
People are all the same no matter what position they hold in an organization or if they're unemployed or retired. We all want to be loved, valued, appreciated, understood, accepted and treated with respect. We all get scared, we all get disappointed, we all get envious and we all make the best choices we can at any given point in time based upon the information we have.
Nobody wakes up in the morning with the intention of having the worst day possible. We wake up with the hope that things will be better today than they were the day before. We may have different job titles but we all have the same job description...to be our unique selves and to allow others to do the same. If we stay focused on our humanity and what we have in common instead of defining status based upon our ego's assumptions about job titles, each of us would be happier and we'd be closer to creating heaven on earth.
After trying to land a new job for weeks without any luck, I decided to work as a temp. I worked as a receptionist, a human resources specialist, a clerk who verified the math for estimators working on government contracts and had a variety of other titles. Every few days or weeks I wore a different hat which determined how I was treated. Having a Master's Degree and having held an upper management position prior to the lay off, I found it interesting that, when I performed a clerical function, others perceived me as being less than I was. Two weeks before I was treated with great respect because I was a district training manager for a national telecommunications company and two weeks later some how I lost all my intelligence, knowledge, training and experience. Yet, I was exactly the same person.
Having been actively pursuing my personal and spiritual development before and after my lay off, I had a wonderful opportunity to reevaluate my own long-held beliefs about job titles. I realized that I was just as guilty of stereotyping people based upon their job titles. I only saw the function a person was performing and assumed that the job titled defined the person. It didn't.
For eight hours a day, somebody might make widgets and then go home and be responsible for the well being of a family and, in that capacity, be a wonderful problem solver, leader, fund raiser, accountant, mechanic, engineer, cook, decorator, teacher...the list goes on. A person's job title is only one iota of who that person is and what he or she is capable of doing and being.
People are all the same no matter what position they hold in an organization or if they're unemployed or retired. We all want to be loved, valued, appreciated, understood, accepted and treated with respect. We all get scared, we all get disappointed, we all get envious and we all make the best choices we can at any given point in time based upon the information we have.
Nobody wakes up in the morning with the intention of having the worst day possible. We wake up with the hope that things will be better today than they were the day before. We may have different job titles but we all have the same job description...to be our unique selves and to allow others to do the same. If we stay focused on our humanity and what we have in common instead of defining status based upon our ego's assumptions about job titles, each of us would be happier and we'd be closer to creating heaven on earth.
Posted by Joanne P. Stein at 5/27/2010 4:46 PM 
Categories: Personal Growth, relationships, happiness, benefits of change, Spirituality
Tags: success personal growth personal development work life balance spiritual growth
Categories: Personal Growth, relationships, happiness, benefits of change, Spirituality
Tags: success personal growth personal development work life balance spiritual growth
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