Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Happy May! Trees are blossoming, the air is scented
with flowers, birds are singing! At this wondrous time
of year, I hope this month’s issue finds you in a
beautiful season of your livelihood, wherever you may be
on that path.
I have met many new colleagues over the last few
months – career counselors, educators, job developers,
HR specialists – all of whom are pouring great heart
into the chalice of daily work. I feel so privileged to
have a voice in this field, just as I suppose you feel
blessed to have a hand in the lives of the individuals
you serve. You are bestowing the gift of perspective on
people’s journeys in many ways - by asking new
questions, lending fresh insights, and teaching creative
strategies. I suggest that there is yet another profound
way in which you can assist people on the vocational
journey – by helping them consider their choices in the
larger context of their view of the world, of the role
of work in their lives, and of the particular stage of
the journey in which they find themselves at present.
What prompted this theme was a conversation with my
daughter who asked me where I thought she should apply
for a summer job. My response was something to this
effect:
“Well, where you apply depends on what you want from
the experience. If you are looking for a way to give to
the community, I would suggest a convalescent hospital,
the homeless shelter or a day care program. If what you
want is to be in a fun environment, I would suggest the
amusement park on the beach. If you are looking to make
and save as much money as possible, I would wait tables
in a high-volume restaurant. Now, if you want a job that
is going to look good on your college applications next
year, with your interest in Drama, I would look at a
community theater group or the Shakespeare Festival on
the college campus. Of course, if building marketable
skills is what is most important to you at this point,
working for a political organization, the town
newspaper, or an office environment might be a good
place to start. Then again, Jess, you might want to be
the entrepreneurial type who advertises various personal
services to neighborhood families.”
Given the long and uncharacteristic silence that
followed, I knew that my daughter was in what I call
“job shock”. It’s that place where our choices are so
varied and profuse that we are stopped in our tracks
like a deer in the headlights. As a teenager, I believed
my work choices were limited by what was advertised in
the newspaper. While that approach greatly limited my
opportunities, it also served to narrow my choices,
making it somewhat easier for me to pick a lane.
If you follow the line of thinking of my response to
my daughter’s question, however, you will see that I was
attempting to illuminate her choices by helping her
clarify the underlying goals and purposes that she would
have drive her decision. “Beginning with the end in
mind”, as Stephen Covey puts it – knowing what you want
before creating it.
While we do not always use this thinking in relation
to work choices, we do it every day quite naturally in
relation to other things. Take getting dressed, for
example. We could stand in front of our closets for a
very long time if it weren’t for the voice in our head
that tells us what we want out of our choice of
clothing. If I want to be casual and comfortable, my
eyes turn to the cottons. When I have an important
business meeting and I need to look professional, my
choices look different. The same happens at lunchtime.
We could stand in the parking lot forever considering
our lunch choices if it weren’t for the voice in our
heads that says, “I have $3.00 and about 30 minutes”,
or, “I need to find a non-fat, low-carb, low cal meal”,
or “It’s my birthday. Let’s splurge!”
Unfortunately, given the competitive nature of the
job market as perceived by most job seekers (and far too
many job counselors!), many people allow the world of
advertised openings to dictate their choices, applying
for what is “available” and accepting the first
opportunity offered to them. Little wonder, then, that
we see such tremendous turnover in the workplace. Little
wonder, then, that we see not just high unemployment,
but high under-employment and mis-employment of people
who have entered the work world! But who is to blame if
I am uncomfortably dressed in wool on a hot summer day
or if I have just ordered a meal which I cannot afford?
What happened to the filter from which to view my
choices? Such is the predicament of the woman who is
dying inside for want of a sense of purpose who took the
job because it paid well, or the older worker who takes
a job in the field where he had the most experience but
is biting at the bit to try his hand in something new?
No t all work choices are equal. Here are a few things
to take into consideration when weighing work them:
1. Consider work choices in the backdrop of one’s
life or world view.
How we view work cannot be separated from how we view
life. Working with refugees and immigrants early in my
career was a rich and fascinating experience, in part
because I came to understand that there are many ways to
experience the world. As I listened to people over the
years, I came to characterize four distinct “world
views”. I offer these simply to share my own perceptions
and understanding – these models are not based on any
scientific, empirical data. The examples I give in each
are not meant to in any way generalize or stereotype
individuals from within particular cultures or
demographic groups. Please take these models as one
person’s observations.
I noticed that some people saw life like a staircase
with the goal of life being to reach the top of the
staircase. The premise is that in order to get there one
has to work hard, be patient, think positively, and
persevere through adversity. This is part of the
proverbial “American dream”, which many of us were
raised to believe, and for whom some of us, it actually
worked. What I also witnessed, however, were hundreds of
people who entered the work world at the bottom, worked
hard, persevered, and stayed there. This should come as
no surprise as capitalism requires an under class,
whether we like it or not. There are other ways of
viewing the world, however.
I met many people from the Eastern traditions
(Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos) who saw life more
like a tree than a staircase. From this perspective, the
goal of life is to plant seeds in the ground of one’s
life which should be nurtured and cultivated throughout
one’s lifetime. Moving from one job to the next is not
appealing from this view, even if the movement is
upward. Staying the course and being loyal is of the
highest value, and as one ages, one evolves and grows in
wisdom. Thus, the difference we see in how elders are
treated in Eastern cultures.
I met other people who experienced life more like a
roller coaster. From this perspective, sometimes you’re
up, sometimes you’re down – the goal of life is to enjoy
the ride. People who had lived close to the earth, from
native and aboriginal cultures, and others whose
cultures are greatly affected by weather patterns,
seemed to relate well to this model. From this view, one
learns to go with the flow and accepts change as is the
only thing of real permanence. There is no illusion of
control from this perspective. There’s just how you
handle life’s twists and turns.
The fourth model is life as a journey. From this
perspective, one has choices at each new crossroad, and
in those choices one has a sense of control. Unlike the
roller coaster, there is a feeling of progress along the
way, though not necessarily linear or upward. I found
that individuals who had experienced adversity of some
kind or another in their lives came to look at life this
way. For example, many individuals who were in recovery,
had been laid off due to corporate down-sizing, or had
served time in prison, began to see life not as static
and predictable, but a process only experienced one step
at a time.
Our vocational choices and decisions are profoundly
affected by how we view our larger lives. From the
staircase model, people are making very deliberate,
well-thought out moves. With the model of the tree, they
are looking to further nurture what has been planted,
while on the roller coaster, there is room for risk as
there is no illusion of having control. For those on a
journey, the past and the future hold little appeal
compared to the choices right there in front of them.
Insight into one’s world view holds insight into how
they can/will make vocational choices.
2. Consider work choices in the context of one’s view
towards work.
Obviously, one’s view of life greatly colors their
view of employment and the meaning of work in their
lives. Some people have been raised with the notion that
work is a moral obligation that must be endured. Others
see it as an opportunity for growth leading to the
actualization of their inner most potential. For others
work is a right of passage into the proverbial “real
world”. How one views the role of work in their larger
life should help to shape the decisions they make in
relation to it. For example, the same choices may look
very different to the person who is going to work as her
first step to independence after raising a family, than
to the person who sees employment as a random set of
choices in which little is invested other than time on
the clock.
I am fascinated with how people respond to various
words for work and the images those words conjure up. I
have no doubt that the power that particular words have
on a person somewhat relates to their deeper cultural
upbringing and world view. Consider for yourself, which
of the following words resonate most for you: Job,
Craft, Vocation, Profession, Calling, Employment,
Project, Career, Livelihood.
I recently journaled about the meaning of these terms
for myself and discovered that they were different
prisms in the kaleidoscope that is my work life. My
craft is my writing and speaking; my vocation is about
helping people see their potential; my profession is in
the Employment and Training field; my next “job” is
keynoting a conference in Oklahoma City; my livelihood
is the place where my passions meet my deepest purposes.
It is worth our time and energy to consider how our view
of work has affected our many choices up until now, and
how it affects our choices in the future. (Note the
journey of my own choices in this issue’s Poem of the
Month, “The Journey to Belong”.)
3. Consider work choices in relation to the
particular stage we are in at any point in time.
Our goals and purposes with regard to work change and
evolve over time, coloring our choices in different
ways. Where we were once at a stage of wanting to “get
ahead” there other times when “just getting by” feels
right. “Getting our feet wet” is a different stage than
“trying our wings” at a new skill or in a new
profession. The person who is at the stage of “getting
secure” is at a very different place than the one who is
looking to “get some balance”. I am not convinced that
these stages are in any way linear or predictable by the
age, gender or skill level of the worker. There is just
where we are at any given time of our lives that will
color our choices. To me, that is the biggest decision
my daughter has in front of her this summer – not where
to work, but what to be working for and what to be
working towards. If I am any help to her at all it will
be in assisting her to see the stage is at in the
context of her much larger journey, or should I say
staircase, tree or roller coaster?
I think it is important that we become aware of our
own personal views of life and work, as well as the
particular stage of livelihood in which we find
ourselves, lest we reflexively place an overlay of our
own cultural mores and work attitudes on the people we
attempt to counsel, be they family, friends, or the
individuals we are employed to serve. This is an
incredibly diverse, wild and wonderful world – big and
generous enough to support and affirm everyone’s view
and understanding of the part they choose to play within
it. May we do justice to the largess of the world we are
born to by making choices that reflect our deepest
dreams and truest gifts at each moment of the choosing…
With deep joy at being part of a great and widening
circle of people on a mission,
Denise
© Denise Bissonnette, May 2004 (If not used for
commercial purposes, this article may be reproduced, all
or in part, providing it is credited to "Denise
Bissonnette, Diversity World - www.diversityworld.com."
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