The work ethic that has been ingrained into each American has come into direct conflict with the realities of the rapidly changing work environment of the '80s and '90s. Businesses are down-sizing, entire industries have become obsolete, and other industries that did not exist ten years ago have arisen and become dominant.
Responsibilities attached to certain jobs have changed. How many of us were using computers in our work ten years ago? How many of us can even guess what kind of skills we will need ten years from now? These kinds of stresses did not exist 70 or 60, or even 30, years ago when jobs and companies changed very little, if at all.
We now know that jobs and companies change dramatically. Unfortunately, the stick-with-it-no-matter-what work ethic has not changed. The result is low self-esteem.
Career and job have become our ego foundations. We identify and refer to ourselves by the type of work we do. As such, if we do not like our job or our work, we wind up not liking ourselves. We lose belief in ourselves and in our ability to do whatever we put our mind to. The result is low self-esteem.
There are some other tangible causes of stress and resulting loss of self-esteem. First and foremost is dissatisfaction with the current situation. Everybody, of course, experiences short-term dissatisfaction, from things like an argument with the boss, the addition of responsibilities, etc., and these come and go. It's the long-term dissatisfactions that must be faced squarely, but rarely are.
Job loss, of course, is a rather obvious cause for loss of self-esteem, even if the job loss is due to circumstances beyond the control of the individual, as it often is in this era of "down-sizing." Loss of job translates into loss of ego.
Changes within a company - attitudes, management styles, expansion, downsizing - all of these can cause stress.
Finally, changes in ourselves cause stress. People somehow never stop to consider the fact that they change even if their jobs and careers do not, and these changes create intense stress. It's not at all unusual in our society to see a 50-year-old whose career is simply the result of decisions made when he was 18. But more often than not, we ignore the changes in ourselves and buckle under to the social pressure to conform and be "a good provider."
We as a society have chosen to deal with the symptoms, rather than the causes of our career stress. We run, we pump iron, we take Valium. After all, we are Americans. We chop down trees, we build log cabins, we survive harsh winters. We can tough out anything that's thrown at us, including loss of self-esteem.
The point is that we all have freedom of choice. But the choice we most often make is to not exercise that freedom. We make hundreds of decisions within our jobs every day, but rarely do we make decisions regarding our job or career. We cave in to that peculiarly American machismo that dictates that we must be happy with our position - no matter what it is - as long as we get that paycheck and the two days off a week and two weeks off a year.
There is only one way to reclaim self-esteem on the job, and that is by taking charge of your career. Decide what you really want to do, then go out and do it. Do not allow your actions to be guided by the pressures of family or society. Don't be lulled into a false sense of security by a paycheck and your employer's "stability."
You are an individual with unique needs and talents, and it is your needs and talents, not your job, that define who you are. If your self-esteem is high, congratulations. You are one of the fortunate few. I hope you enjoy it and maintain it. If your self-esteem is low, look within. It is only there that you can reclaim what is rightfully yours.
Meta: consider the fact that they change even if their jobs and careers do not, and these changes create intense stress. Read more here.
