I agree with this statement one hundred percent. I have always equated my identity with the my place of work. My fiancé always asks me why I have no hobbies and I always say that my work is my hobby. My place of work has always been important to me and I think that is because I truly enjoy working (well not always but all of the things that I can learn from working and the places I can go because of my experiences in different workplaces I find great joy in). I find that I equate my level of personal success and satisfaction with not only my place of work but also the type of work that I do, my co-workers, and my opportunities to learn. My identity is my work and it has been since the moment I got my first job. I also am curious and alert to how others view my company because it helps me gauge my level of success as well. When I worked at my last job that I absolutely HATED my health suffered, my appetite suffered, and my level of happiness suffered. I am my company and I hope that I always represent that well.
2 comments:
This blog was interesting to me because I've done the opposite. I find great satisfaction in my work; however, I've tried as much as possible NOT to identify myself by how and what I do as a job.
To me, when I begin to find myself identified by work, I feel that my work-life balance has reached disequilibrium and need to get away. My hobbies and side projects follow my true interests and I feel define myself more.
I have many friends who lean towards the "Organizational Identity = Personal Identity" mentality and some of them seem happy. As you mentioned, if you follow this approach, it is crucially important to find work and a workplace that you enjoy!
Up until this point, I think my experience so far has been more along the lines of what Hapa is saying - though it's hard to tell at the moment, given that I'm not fully employed at the moment (which is what I'm exploring in a blog entry that I'll be posting later this morning). For a long time, I found myself working only to get by, to mark off the hours until the evening or the weekend when I would truly live. This was something that I was taught by my parents, who had a very strong work ethic and who showed loyalty of a fashion to their employers - but their jobs did not identify them. Their family, their friendships, their hobbies outside of work were who they were - their jobs funded that.
I told myself that my life could be like that as I jumped from office job to office job, not finding much satisfaction in my work, but having a rich social, family, and creative life. But somewhere along the way, I realized that I was spending two-thirds of my weekday waking hours either driving to work or being at work, and resenting most of that time. 40 to 60 hours a week is a lot of time to spend unsatisfied.
I don't know where I'm going to eventually end up, or even that I'll know my destination when I get there. But, ultimately, I'd like there to be some sort of balance. I don't want to be only my career, but I don't want my life's work to be something I begrudgingly tolerate, either. It would be nice to be able to tell people what I do for a living with as much pride and excitement as I put into other aspects of my life.
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