Too often we tend to categorize people according to their job.
Here is a popular text that responds with relevance to the famous question "what do you do for a living? "
You've probably noticed it already:you've been chatting for 2 minutes with a person you just met.
And one of the first questions she asks you is "what do you do for a living?". Exasperating, isn't it?
Who has never been confronted with this situation?
It's a bit like trying to stick a label to your interlocutor r depending on his job...
But it's not because you have a CV as long as your arm that you are a more interesting person than another...
A person is fortunately not limited to his job.
And when the fateful moment comes to answer this annoying question, we are sometimes caught off guard...
Forming an opinion about a person based on their profession and social status is very restrictive.
And yet... this question is more and more frequent and I find that it has the gift of making people uncomfortable!
Indeed, people who have chaotic or atypical career paths obviously find it more difficult to respond calmly.
On the other hand, those who have "made a career" in large companies by following a traditional professional path can easily assert their brilliant diplomas.
But judging a person and forming an opinion based on their work does not allow us to globally understand the richness of their personality.
If so, it would mean that before we started working, we were not worthy of attention.
And that once you retire or face unemployment, disability or illness, you become an insignificant person...
Which is obviously far from true!
To answer this question, here is a text shared by Psychanalyse Jungienne on Facebook, which puts things in their place.
We do not know the author of this text but it was very successful. Here it is:
"And you, what do you do for a living?"
Who hasn't been asked this question? When meeting a new person, at a dinner party, reuniting with childhood friends, or chatting with a neighbour.
"What do you do for a living?"
I always want to answer :
"Me? oh in life, I walk, I have fun, I learn things, I read, I admire nature, I communicate with people, I am amazed, I enjoy, I LIVE, what!".
Yet I know that the real question is "what is the job you do?", as if our profession were our whole life, as if our professional activity were the first, if not the only criterion to define us.
So yes, I know, most people spend most of their time AT WORK, but I don't 'just' follow my professional activity.
And above all, I don't like labels. I don't like being put in a box depending on whether I'm a secretary, an engineer, a cleaner, a business manager or a lawyer.
Especially since, behind this seemingly innocent question "what do you do for a living", there is often a need to compare yourself, to know what the other is worth in relation to yourself and also know how much he earns.
"It's pretty sterile to label people and squeeze them into categories." (Carl Gustav Jung)
You are not what you physically look like, you are not what you do, you are not what you own, you are not what others think of you...
Let's stop putting people in boxes , to stick labels according to whether you are thin, fat, blonde, disabled, cleaning lady, senior executive, from a bourgeois family, of foreign nationality, etc.
You are much more than a physical body, a hair color, a nationality or a profession.
You are, above all, a spiritual being living a human experience , with ideas, with dreams, feelings.
You are YOU.
Be fully YOU without letting yourself be boxed in, and without labeling the people you meet.
Otherwise, you miss their essence, their qualities.
And if not… uh… what do YOU do for a living?
"Well, I'm doing my best!"
