i'd like to talk about work. office romances. hot gossip. snotty coworkers. firm secrets.
get ready for it.
did i mention i work in hr? kind of, anyway. i kind of work in hr.
despite what it may look like, i'm not in the mood to commit career suicide. when i wrote that i wanted to talk about work, i meant that i want to talk about not wanting to talk about work. why do people do that anyway? the only people who care about what's going on in your office are the people IN your office. is that mean? i honestly want to support my friends, but i don't need to know that the denver branch is out of paper clips.
on the other hand, i do want to hear about my friends' struggles, questions, goals, and successes. does a real friend get to pick and choose? urgh. i like listening to these things. people tell me their stuff and then i pretend like i have an inkling of insight to share. i might not have had the most traditional career path, i may not even be on an official "career path" yet, but this is what i know:
pay your dues. (without a visa.)
for as long as i can remember, this is my favorite part of any lecture. say you're attending an event and there is a guest speaker. inevitably, the speaker tells the story about how they started out as a bathroom attendant and ended up the ceo. that's going to be me! honestly, one of my goals in life is to one day be able to give that sort of speech. i can't say today that i am thankful that i had to empty dishes and clean the kitchen for a year, but maybe someday i will. and then, in 2036, when i'm the president of abcxyz company, (yes, my mom thinks i'm going to be the president of this place. i haven't told her that it's not actually possible.), i will tell a group of new hires about my days of cleaning conference rooms.
learn it, then earn it. (i made that up.)
i am a card carrying member of generation y. (as if the blog wasn't a big enough hint...) some blame it on the late, great mr. rogers. they say that as a generation, he taught us to believe that we were wonderful, valuable, worthy human beings. aren't we? upon graduating college, i thought the world was my oyster. employers were lucky to have me. boy was i wrong. wrong, wrong, wrong. i wasn't entitled to the job of my dreams or to the responsibility that matched my capability either. i was the lucky one: lucky to have a job. this wasn't an easy lesson for me. it ate away at me, in fact. eventually, the good jobs started coming my way. first little things, then more complex projects. day by day, i learned how to do the jobs and eventually i earned the responsibility i had hoped for. earning the right to do what i am capable of is the most rewarding experience i can remember.
choose your attitude.
this sounds simple enough but it requires a lot of thought and intention. victor frankl wrote, "the one thing you can't take away from me is the way i choose to respond to what you do to me. the last of one's freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given circumstance." granted, this man is a concentration camp survivor, but who among us hasn't referred to at least one boss as "hitler"? they even call the bossy surgeon on grey's anatomy, "the nazi." i really need to shut up... the point is that we do have the power to choose our attitude. you can't control what happens to you, but you can control what you do about it. in january or february of this year, i made a decision to be happy at work. pms aside, it's my only option. i can honestly say that making that decision has changed all of my day to day interactions, my ability to do my job and exceed expectations, and my career and goals in general. i put that positivity out there and it has been given back to me many times over. try it.
i started this section by saying, "this is what i know." i'm not going to lie, i know more than these three things. i know at least six or seven. stay tuned.
get ready for it.
did i mention i work in hr? kind of, anyway. i kind of work in hr.
despite what it may look like, i'm not in the mood to commit career suicide. when i wrote that i wanted to talk about work, i meant that i want to talk about not wanting to talk about work. why do people do that anyway? the only people who care about what's going on in your office are the people IN your office. is that mean? i honestly want to support my friends, but i don't need to know that the denver branch is out of paper clips.
on the other hand, i do want to hear about my friends' struggles, questions, goals, and successes. does a real friend get to pick and choose? urgh. i like listening to these things. people tell me their stuff and then i pretend like i have an inkling of insight to share. i might not have had the most traditional career path, i may not even be on an official "career path" yet, but this is what i know:
pay your dues. (without a visa.)
for as long as i can remember, this is my favorite part of any lecture. say you're attending an event and there is a guest speaker. inevitably, the speaker tells the story about how they started out as a bathroom attendant and ended up the ceo. that's going to be me! honestly, one of my goals in life is to one day be able to give that sort of speech. i can't say today that i am thankful that i had to empty dishes and clean the kitchen for a year, but maybe someday i will. and then, in 2036, when i'm the president of abcxyz company, (yes, my mom thinks i'm going to be the president of this place. i haven't told her that it's not actually possible.), i will tell a group of new hires about my days of cleaning conference rooms.
learn it, then earn it. (i made that up.)
i am a card carrying member of generation y. (as if the blog wasn't a big enough hint...) some blame it on the late, great mr. rogers. they say that as a generation, he taught us to believe that we were wonderful, valuable, worthy human beings. aren't we? upon graduating college, i thought the world was my oyster. employers were lucky to have me. boy was i wrong. wrong, wrong, wrong. i wasn't entitled to the job of my dreams or to the responsibility that matched my capability either. i was the lucky one: lucky to have a job. this wasn't an easy lesson for me. it ate away at me, in fact. eventually, the good jobs started coming my way. first little things, then more complex projects. day by day, i learned how to do the jobs and eventually i earned the responsibility i had hoped for. earning the right to do what i am capable of is the most rewarding experience i can remember.
choose your attitude.
this sounds simple enough but it requires a lot of thought and intention. victor frankl wrote, "the one thing you can't take away from me is the way i choose to respond to what you do to me. the last of one's freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given circumstance." granted, this man is a concentration camp survivor, but who among us hasn't referred to at least one boss as "hitler"? they even call the bossy surgeon on grey's anatomy, "the nazi." i really need to shut up... the point is that we do have the power to choose our attitude. you can't control what happens to you, but you can control what you do about it. in january or february of this year, i made a decision to be happy at work. pms aside, it's my only option. i can honestly say that making that decision has changed all of my day to day interactions, my ability to do my job and exceed expectations, and my career and goals in general. i put that positivity out there and it has been given back to me many times over. try it.
i started this section by saying, "this is what i know." i'm not going to lie, i know more than these three things. i know at least six or seven. stay tuned.
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