Why it's important that you are simpatico with your paid work organisation

So here's a pause in my diatribe on workforce planning (phew! you say!). And here's a reflection on why it is so important to work in a workplace whose business or mandate it is accords with your own values, personality, and interest.

I've had a strange paid work history. The first chapter involves working for my family. My first paid job was cleaning my father-in-law's medical surgery. Twice a week at around 8pm I would go to his surgery to vacuum, polish and dust. I guess I would have been around 18 years old at the time and a mother of one. I wasn't driving and my husband drove me there and back. My second job was as my brother-in-law's medical practice manager. This time I was 24, had four children, and was now driving. I enjoyed this role and found that it easily fitted into my role as wife and mother. My third role involved working as one of my father-in-law's medical receptionists. On one occasion he asked me to come into his office to retrieve something or another, and I walked in to see a patient pointing his penis at my father-in-law, who was gazing intently on what must have been the bone of contention.  

The second chapter involves working as a casual ACT Public Servant, again as a medical receptionist. This was at the time then Canberra's public health centres were on the wain. My various roles in a number of Belconnen health centres included filing, archiving (in a cupboard!!!), operating a switchboard, administering a spectacles scheme, and of course, answering patient enquiries. Two principle memories remain: first, I was told that visiting specialists came once a week and my role when they came was to make and serve them cups of tea. This really got in my craw as it reminded me of the servile secretary image of the 50s and 60s, anyway, word of my rebellion must have reached the ears of the specialist (I wonder if he was an ear, nose, and throat man?) such that one day he made a big song and dance about making me a cup of tea. I was chastened, but still passively-aggressively rebellious. Another time there was a very angry receptionist who used to come into the office where I worked and bang files down on the desk and talk nastily about patients and doctors. Her behaviour was making literally making me ill. So one day I decided to raise it with her by saying, "Ros, can I talk with you a moment? I just want you to know that when you come in here and xxxx it makes me feel really tense and quite upset. What's going on for you?" and do you know what?  She started to cry and then tell me about what was driving her behaviour. Suffice it to say she never behaved angrily again, and from that moment there was nothing but respect between us. This was to be a powerful, early lesson for me.

The third chapter involves paid work during my undergraduate studies. To make money I wrote for the university newspaper, which paid $40 an article, and also tutored a year 12 student in essay writing. I really enjoyed this challenge, and am proud to say that her confidence grew in proportion to her marks.