A Job Is What You Do, NOT Who You Are.

Today at Kinko's, while standing over the self serve copier waiting as my copies copied, my eye wandered over to the book rack. Books all about jobs. How to get jobs, how to get out of jobs, how to deal with unruly co-workers and bosses. After 20 years in Retail management, I was fascinated.


The titles have been altered to protect the innocent, and are listed in bold italics. Then, I've given my best management opinion to save y'all lots of time reading and to save expense.

• How To Work For A Complete Idiot: Chances are, if you are working for someone you think is a total idiot, you should probably look for another job. How can you ever respect your boss who you think is an idiot? How can they respect you, if you do not respect them? Mutual respect is a 2 way street. The respect vibe floats in the air, yet, is as thick as peanut butter on a sterling silver spoon.



• Can I Wear My Nose Ring For The Interview? Yes definitely, if you plan to become a Tattoo artist, or an entrepreneur or Studio Artist in the East Village. Probably not if you want to get into Harvard and become an Investment Banker on Wall Street. Also, probably not if you want to work in any kind of Food Service!



• 9 Clowns Do Not A Circus Make: Well, you can run off and join the circus, if you want to, but they probably better have more than 9 clowns or it will not be much of a success. My husband's brother did run off every summer in High School to join the circus, which is probably why it took him 7 years to graduate from High School. At his graduation, he received a standing ovation! His circus was a success because they had more than 9 clowns.



• Working With You Is Killing Me: Personally, I have had one job like this and worked under tremendous stress for four years. Sweat, pride in this work I adored doing, and tears. A wonderful loyal staff of 5, moving my boutique store up in sales and rank to #1, and putting up with nasty owners and district managers that knew little about the business or the local climate. They could have cared less about me, and my customers. They only saw the money and wanted more. Even moving my store rank to #1 was not good enough. Always more. Always complaining. Never good enough. Never, never, never. The stress took a serious toll on my health. You just must get transferred to a different department if possible, get a different supervisor if possible, or leave the job. Even if you love the work, and excel at it, get a similar job. Just make sure you have another job to go to and that you have arranged for one week off in between jobs so you may go on vacation, or at the least, have a "stay cation," and rest, sleep, pamper yourself and poke around your humble abode for at least one week. My Sister is a Hospice RN and sees people with Cancer in their forties ALL the time. Stress is a killer, for real.

Jobs are what you do, NOT who you are. Be sure to try and find a job you are content to have most of the time. Jobs, just like family and relationships, are not fun every single day, all day long, all the time, but should be satisfactory to you and for you most of the time. Take care!