If you’re the kind of person is always troubled by something (most people are), directing that unsettled nagging feeling into your work is the best thing you can do.
What happens when your career becomes your whole identity
21–30 of 277 posts
Re: What happens when your career becomes your whole identity
#22In my experience extreme workaholism can often be a way to avoid or defer major life decisions that someone doesn't want to make or even consciously recognize. High status careers are often structured, full of positive feedback loops, and well compensated, all of which can strengthen the urge to defer existential questions about meaning, purpose, community, and identity until some unspecified future date, even (perha…
No, that’s just the human condition. Having an outlet for it is good!
Re: What happens when your career becomes your whole identity
#23Furthermore I fundamentally believe that individuals in this state have their social and political opinions shaped by their enmeshed, single professional identity.
I believe professionals such as this are far more likely to only have opions which avoid controversy or are on the side of a social current consistent with those in their industry or customers at large.
Their personal choices become indistinguishable from that of a well thought out PR team.
In particular I suggest this phenom is right at the root of a lot of localist vs globalist antagonism. Most professionals would probably err on the side of economic liberalism in the more general sense because it makes sense for their enmeshed professional identity.
But the personal identity which is obfuscated may have much more connection with the community,uch more likely to know and empathize with those affected. Or maybe even just at odds with the professional identity for whatever reason.
When I left my very corporate job it took me months to realise how free I was to have basically any opinion that I wanted and didn't realize how much I must have been orienting my thoughts into a direction that would be acceptable to my peers. (or what I thought would be acceptable).
I'm very supportive of the fact there is research on this.
Re: What happens when your career becomes your whole identity
#24Analogous to “putting all eggs in a single basket”, the risks are very high.
You end up becoming hyper sensitive at work, start taking everything personal -well, it is your identity or ego at stake. Leads be becoming very closed, guarded and aggressive. Everyday becomes a fight for survival.
I personally went through this phase for a long time. Looking back, some of my managers exploited this by reinforcing. They knew if they compare me with anyone, I would up the competition and perform even better. This did not cost them money since I had invested myself, my identity and ego 100%. Overall, resulted in a highly competitive team but extremely stressful and caustic!
After changing teams, I decided to take a step back and make a fresh start. I now work for the love of my work and do not let it represent who/what I am. It is my identity at work. Back home or with friends, I have a different identity. Having multiple things to fallback has made me more resilient and lot more positive.
Re: What happens when your career becomes your whole identity
#25This anti-work ethic you see crop up once in a while is delusion. Success comes from perseverance, not idleness or detachment. A few days ago, there was an article from some CEO claiming that you don't need to work hard to succeed. Today, we have an article from HBR cautioning about becoming too invested in one's work. This sentiment is dangerous. It's harmful to teach young people to be cynical, indifferent, and laz…
Working hard is good, but working so hard that you completely neglect rest of your life isn't. For most people's well being things like family and hobbies are at least as important as work, and there's nothing wrong with that. If our economic system doesn't allow them to enjoy those parts of their lives, then the fault lies on the system, not on individuals.
Re: What happens when your career becomes your whole identity
#26This anti-work ethic you see crop up once in a while is delusion. Success comes from perseverance, not idleness or detachment. A few days ago, there was an article from some CEO claiming that you don't need to work hard to succeed. Today, we have an article from HBR cautioning about becoming too invested in one's work. This sentiment is dangerous. It's harmful to teach young people to be cynical, indifferent, and laz…
This really depends on how you define success.
If success means creating something unique, new, and amazing that is known and loved by millions, whether that be a company, piece of art, or scientific innovation, then yes, it's unlikely you'll get there without an enormous amount of hard work, and unlikely you'll get there even if you put in that work.
If success means happily living with your partner in the suburbs of a flyover state in a moderately-sized house with a big backyard for your kids, you don't need to tie your life to your career.
Re: What happens when your career becomes your whole identity
#27My mother was very much like this. When she retired, she found it quite hard to re-adjust. Fortunately she has a few hobbies to fall back on. Personally, I find it quite a hard balance to get right. On the one hand, tying your identity whole-heartedly to your profession seems dangerous. On the other, being entirely apathetic about it seems like a waste of a life (that is, one spent mostly at work ). I try to hang som…
Love your job and you'll never work a day in your life. Live your job and you won't have any love left to give.
The problem I have with this is that love is a complicated thing. I love playing soccer, but without the social validation of my friends who also play it I would absolutely never practice. Similarly for most careers, even highly lovable ones.
Re: What happens when your career becomes your whole identity
#28I love my job. My work is interesting. My peers are delightful. I’ve had great jobs and a great career. My job is not my whole identity. It is 0% of my identity. It’s just a job. If I had FU money I’d peace out tomorrow and work on hobby projects in my spare time. These days I feel like I’m the oddball. I don’t associate my job or hobby with my identity. I couldn’t tell you my “identity” if I tried. I’m a soup of lik…
Completely agree with this. It's one reason why I like being a teacher (and one reason why it'd be hard to leave, even if it's for a job that has a much higher chance of allowing me to make FU money). I have several months off (well, not off as I do have to do stuff, but I can work from home mostly), of the course of the year, to pursue hobbies and basically anything I want to, even if it's just being super lazy. I really enjoy that, and it makes for a much better work-life balance.
Re: What happens when your career becomes your whole identity
#29In my experience extreme workaholism can often be a way to avoid or defer major life decisions that someone doesn't want to make or even consciously recognize. High status careers are often structured, full of positive feedback loops, and well compensated, all of which can strengthen the urge to defer existential questions about meaning, purpose, community, and identity until some unspecified future date, even (perha…
It's because when you're young, you're just happy to be making it on your own. But I'm not sure everyone does reach the second stage. Some people seem to be content just living their lives and enjoying themselves without really wondering if they could have done more or whether they need to leave the world a better place than when they arrived. I think maybe it depends on how much exposure to death one has had. Death…
That implies they are not really content so much as ignorant about the realities of their mortality.
Re: What happens when your career becomes your whole identity
#30This anti-work ethic you see crop up once in a while is delusion. Success comes from perseverance, not idleness or detachment. A few days ago, there was an article from some CEO claiming that you don't need to work hard to succeed. Today, we have an article from HBR cautioning about becoming too invested in one's work. This sentiment is dangerous. It's harmful to teach young people to be cynical, indifferent, and laz…
This really depends on how you define success. If success means creating something unique, new, and amazing that is known and loved by millions, whether that be a company, piece of art, or scientific innovation, then yes, it's unlikely you'll get there without an enormous amount of hard work, and unlikely you'll get there even if you put in that work. If success means happily living with your partner in the suburbs o…
People born with talent have an opportunity to both themselves and the world to make use of this talent to do great things. When you replace a drive for greatness with contentment with mediocrity, you make us all worse off.