Our Jobs, Ourselves

"Work in America has always been both the most vital expression of a person's humanity and a persistent state of inhuman blankness, a contradiction that survives in the peculiar idiom 'human resource'. You can either be a human or a resource; you can't be both" . - Stephen Marche, Esquire

In Esquire's September issue Stephen Marche opines on the nature of work in American. Our jobs define who we are and we work harder than any other nation. But why do we think that working an 80 hour week makes us better or tougher than the French or Dutch or Spaniards. Why is it that we use our occupations to define who we are? The first thing that we do upon meeting a new person is ask "What do you do?". We use it as a why to categorize the other person, to make a quick assessment of who they are. Yet in other places, your job isn't the measure of who or what you are. I have a friend in Spain and she is an accountant, but you would never know it, in all our conversations her workplace was hardly ever mentioned. We talked about her belly dancing, travel and a myriad of other things but not her job. It wasn't a concern outside of the office.

When I lived in Spain I did meet people who worked very hard at their jobs, but they also took advantage of their free time. I enjoyed a month of vacation without guilt, with no nagging sense that there was something left undone, that I was leaving colleagues in the lurch. (Okay, I taught English and had no classes to teach, but still). Others, beside myself, were able to take extensive vacations to spend time with their families, friends, visit other places or just chill.

So why do we let our jobs define who we are as a people in America? As Marche, astutely acknowledges in his column, so people have felt a sense of relief at getting laid off:

"What is the point of all this work if the end result is more work for the purpose of yet more work? Are we all, like Michael Scott, humiliating ourselves for the glory of the flat-screen TV? And could it be that for a huge number of people, despite all their genuine suffering, the economic catastrophe has been a relief -- a relief not to have to work so much and a relief not to spend so much? We needed a pause and we got one, and we've started to ask ourselves what the hell we're working for".

This economic downturn has left people free to do what they truly wanted, to explore other occupations that gave them a deeper sense of self.

And then today, I came across a trailer for a new documentary, Lemonade, made by a former ad executive, featuring other ad execs that had been laid off. These people were given another chance at living their lives.



All this to say, that for me the idea of getting back into the workforce permanently is filled with angst and hope. Can I just have a job and not let it define who I am? Is there a way for me to pay the bills and keep my sanity intact? If we learn nothing more from this recession, it should be that we have to take the time to consider just why it is that we are pushing ourselves so hard for. In the end is it going to matter that you have the latest flat-screen television that you never actually watch because you're at work all of the time or that you've seen the most beautiful sunset ever in the hills in Portugal? I'd choose the sunset over the flat screen any day.