Let me ask you a question…
How much of your self-identity is attached to what you do for your occupation?
Let me ask you a question…
How much of your self-identity is attached to what you do for your occupation?
Since I am retired, my identity could be a retired sweet old gentleman with disabilities to a lazy old ner-do-well crippled guy with cats. I would like to suppose the actual descriptive identity of myself lies somewhere in-between the two extremes. g
what I do for a living is just a job and does not define who I am.
So 0%?
A bit, I suppose. I love my work, and I love being of help to my patients. But it doesn’t consume me.
I imagine you have to put up a bit of a wall or you would be overwhelmed with involvement in others.
Yep. Gotta turn it off at the end of the day.
None… it’s what I do to fill up my days. I’ve had 8 jobs since I graduated college 17 years ago. I’ve really enjoyed them all, but I’d be having an identity crisis if I self identified with my jobs.
I’ve had 2 careers over the last 30 years. One as a PGA Professional and one in the marketing industry.
The two are fairly independent, especially in retirement, but even before – so many years, so many different, very different, jobs.
It is interesting to me that no one has used the word “career” but have used the word “job”. I haven’t worked a job since before college. I have had 2 careers which I was passionate about and I don’t see them as independent but intertwined. After all most people spend more time with coworkers than they do at home.
That is interesting. I think that for some the idea of “career” implies a largely planned path in which a dominant interest or talent drives how one earns a living. Others, including me, take a winding path of necessities and opportunities in which the dominant interests may intersect with paid work, but not necessarily.
I am the former.
Gosh …. I have reinvented myself so many times in jobs and careers. If I let my job define who I was I would never know me at all. One thing all f my jobs and career choices have in common though, is that when I am there, I am 100% there and I always give my all to whatever it is I am doing at the time, while hopefully still being true and loyal to myself and to my loved ones.
You are the first person to use the word career. I think it is easier to keep work separate from “self” when you see your work as a job. When career comes in to play I think some of one’s identity gets attached to that career.
I completely agree.
The old is “what you do” the answer to “who you are”. I’ve had different careers so I have always had trouble identifiying myself as my job or my career. Now that I am older I fight the perception by many that “retired” means old and on the way out.
But if we are honest, some part of our identity does get attached to that career.
Actually more that I thought now that I an retired except I did so many other things while I worked, I have lits and lits to do and get involved with
I appreciate your honesty. I think if more people spent time in introspection they would realize more of the identity is attached to their career than they may realize.
I’m still working (or trying to- it’s been pretty dead in my field the last 3 years). Yes, I do identify myself as a seafarer. A captain. A DPO. I’ve spent my entire life working on and around the ocean. I’ve only had a couple of other jobs in my life: bartender, housekeeper, worked at a hot dog place in the mall.
I’ve never been out of work for more than a couple of weeks in my life until this latest downturn in the oilfield. It’s been really hard to adjust. There is no work on shore for a boat driver! Spending 50 years working on the water and then having every opportunity out there just disappear is very hard to deal with.
Before I was laid off, I would say probably 90% of my identity was tied up in my profession. Now, since I have been trying so hard to survive and have 4-5 other jobs trying to make up for that one, I would say only 80%. It is very depressing to find out after so many years of working so hard that there is nothing to show for it.
I appreciate you being so honest. I hope something is around the corner that puts you back on the open ocean!
thanks, it’s been rough.
None. I retired last Year. However I’m now working part time with the Brooklyn Public Library in the Adult Learning Center. This job is closer to my Heart because I am a Liaison for my community where many People are studying for their High School Equivalency Diploma formerly known as the GED. Plus I have always Loved Libraries from childhood.
It sounds like you are a part of a great mission.
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