A Profession Is Not a Personality
Five takeaways:
- In today’s fast-paced work culture, too many of us “self-objectify” in the workplace, striving past our own physical or mental comfort zones to become “work machines” and “tools of performance.”
- If work conditions give us the feeling of “being used as a tool,” rather than feeling recognized and valuable in a work environment, and not being recognized as an agent in the working environment, we are more likely to experience burnout, depression, and other workplace issues.
- Brooks wants readers to ask themselves: Is your job the biggest part of your identity? Do you find yourself sacrificing love relationships for work? Do you have trouble imagining being happy if you were to lose your job or career? If you answer in the affirmative, to any or all of these, you might accidentally be self-objectifying in the workplace.
- Brooks offers two helpful tactics to self-objectifying in the workplace: 1) enforcing a strict work/life boundary on weekends and on vacations and 2) Spend time with people who have no connection to your work.
- Brooks notes that it takes courage to experience your full life and true self when work demands so much of us, but that we must!
From Arthur C. Brooks at The Atlantic:
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