Is Your Job YOU?

Is Your Job YOU?

Posted on April 28, 2018by sillyvalleygal

How much does your job define who you are, or what your value as a person is?

I’ve spent my life making my job a priority over most everything else. My parents were like that, so maybe that’s where I got it. For them, it was a major catastrophe to be late to work, or horror of horrors – get fired. My mother worked as a school secretary, and she would drop us off at school on her way in to work every morning. If we were moving slowly as we got ready for school, she would yell at us, “Hurry up! You’re going to get me fired!” We were young, and the only definition of “fired” that we knew was actual fire; flames lit with a match. Every time she threatened that she might get fired, I would start crying.  We thought that if Mom was late, her boss would literally light her on fire. I remember whispered conversations between my parents about someone who got fired, “They just gave him a pink slip and fired him.” I envisioned some poor schmuck holding a piece of pink paper up in the air as his body was engulfed in flames. It was a horrifying image. No wonder we cried at the suggestion that Mom might end up like that.

My parents had solid work ethics. They were never late to work, and they never called in sick. They gave 100% of their energy to their jobs, often at the expense of their children. We were latchkey kids as soon as we got old enough to be trusted without a babysitter. We had 3 or 4 hours alone every day to find multiple ways to get into trouble.

Unless you’re a brain surgeon, soldier, policeman, or fireman, your job probably isn’t a life and death issue. Maybe a project will suffer a schedule slip, but life or death? I don’t think so. So why does it feel like that? Maybe because we were raised to take it seriously. As we should. But there’s a limit. Taken too seriously, my job overcomes me and devours me. It inhabits my brain 24/7 and eats away at me as thoughts of the day’s conversations, conflicts, and mistakes replay non-stop. So stop!

Take a deep breath, remember it’s only one day in one week in one month in one year of your life. It’s not life and death. It’s not worth sacrificing your health. Keep perspective!