I've been thinking just how significant our choice of job is and how incredibly life impacting it is. Seriously, we spend more of our waking hours at jobs than anything else! 54% apparently and that's not including travelling to and from work.
This accounts for half our lives and yet how many of us wake up each Monday unconsciously writing off the next 5 or 6 days as a loss almost; living for the next weekend and the few days of holiday we have to look forward to. Surely this isn't how it should be?
I was recently asked about a typical work day for me. I smiled and described a day, not a specific day, an ordinary work day all be it in Cyprus, which isn't exactly ordinary I know. It wasn't until later, reflecting on the conversation that I realised the day I had described so briefly, and unusually cheerfully, didn't fit in the box for most 'working' people and I became uncomfortably aware that I may not have come across as 'professionally' as I would have liked, to make the right impression in this particular context. I began to wonder what that's about for me....
I realised when the prescribed half hour chat was concluded and I was reflecting, defensively lamenting as one often does after an interview, that there was so much more I could have said to add kudos to my apparently wanton work ethic. For instance I should have said that I actually regularly worked well beyond 'office hours' to complete projects which I gave my all to, way beyond any expectations set by anyone else, because they were set by me and that's just how I am.
That I drove my own targets and succeeded because I chose to because it pleased me to, not because I was starving or needed to for anyone else's approval. That actually I love what I do, and I know what I'm good at, so for me there has been no beginning, and no end to my work day, it's a blend.
It's not so much something I do, but something I am. I succeed because I am competitive, my drive is instinctual. I'm not sure at this stage of my life I could be any other way. Any work I do I must be fully in....or it won't work for me. This isn't a person that can be put in a box with a lid I know, but I'm a great person to have on a team because my passion isn't prescribed, it's who I am.
All this said and done I am thankfully aware that I have been fortunate with the opportunities I have had to live a life that fits me in recent years, and not to have to fit myself into a life that dictates my shape and my song. It hasn't always been this way, and I wished somehow I had been able to communicate this also.
I wanted to have it known that I have grit and determination aplenty. That I've had times where I have felt stressed beyond imagining, when my very spirit was dying daily under an oppressive regime from which escape seemed unlikely (I say unlikely, not unimaginable because for me there is always a shard of rebellion even in the darkest corners of my story) I have endured self crippling domination, felt starved of hope, been lost in a wilderness of strangers, thousands of miles from home and I have survived and rescued my children. That's not on my CV because it doesn't translate but it really should be because it's an accomplishment I'm proud to own and says more about my capacities and character than anything else I've done.
I wanted to say raising four children single handedly for the past 16 years and even before that under such conditions as I described I could hardly say I was supported, has been an achievement worthy of the highest boardroom recognition. All my children are well educated, socially and emotionally intelligent individuals, a credit to society and an asset to HMRC. That's a job well done for sure.
I wonder how many women underestimate the skills they have or the credit they are due because they don't fit neatly into a box with a lid, and how many sadly fit themselves into that box despite their own discomfort and no recognition. Too many! How many deserve gold stars on their CV's but never see one? This recognition is for you.
I was intending to write the article I have added as a link here, but these guys already did it for me. I think it's particularly relevant for young people who have time to consider their job choices before life consumes them with responsibilities that drive the wheel and choice seems someone else's perogative.
Forget Work-Life Balance: Aim for Blend Instead -
I've digressed in my ramblings today in favour of my feminist sympathies but I hope some of you may feel a welcome pat on the back coming your way from me this morning as I honour the many women and mothers who's CV's may not show it but who are worthy of great respect and if the world was fair, a pay check worthy of their efforts.
Have a great Sunday.
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