How are you feeling about your work at the
moment?
It’s easy to slump into the view expressed
below:
“...
if people are highly successful in their professions they lose their
senses. Sight goes. They have no time to look at pictures. Sound goes. They have no time to listen to music. Speech goes. They have no time
for conversation. They lose their sense
of proportion – the relations between one thing and another. Humanity goes. Money making becomes so important that they
must work by night as well as by day. Health goes. And so competitive
do they become that they will not share themselves. What then remains of a human being who has
lost sight, and sound, and sense of proportion? Only a cripple in a cave.[1]”
And there is some truth in it – there are plenty
of people spending a lot of time working and not doing other things – but it’s
not the whole truth.
Another view is that:
“You
may regard ‘personal development’ as something that happens outside work
hours. This isn’t so. The complexity if the contemporary workplace
offers outstanding opportunities for personal and social growth. ...
· You
have to learn to get along with a wide range of people, some of whom you may
not especially like.
· You
have to learn to compromise, postpone gratification, resolve conflicts, take
criticism and cope with disappointments and injustices.
· You
have to get on with your work whether or not you “feel like it”.
· You
have to be able to support other people and meet a variety of expectations.
· You
have to test your creativity, flexibility, resilience and persistence.”[2]
So it’s not all bad!
Both authors are highly recommended reading,
Virginia Woolf for intelligent, thoughtful takes on gender issues (from long
before it was studied in universities) and Stephanie Dowrick for intelligent,
thoughtful takes on relationships and the self. And both on what a good life is, or could be.
Vanessa King, WIE Committe , Tasmania
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