When work defines who we are…

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important"

Bertrand Russell

One of my beliefs is that we should not live only to work and that employment should not define our personality. Even though I love my profession I was never a person that was characterized by her profession. To be honest I find most people that have studied psychology boring and pretense. Furthermore, I am not antagonistic so I want to relate with people that are open-mined and have various interests. Even though it is nice sharing ideas with people from your profession I prefer talking with people that do different things and interchange ideas. Besides I never met a psychologist that likes comics or goes to rock and indie concerts but I met people that do something else and are interested in what I do and this is far more interesting.

Even though I read a lot and I like to share what I know I leave work at work. I talk about my work when I am asked or someone shows a genuine interest but I would never start a conversation. Rather I usually talk about my hobbies, my dreams, things that happen in daily life,politics, manga, films and music. I like it when someone is interested in what I do but what I do is a part of me and not my whole self. My whole self has so many things that want to share and so many things that want to learn. I can never get enough of learning and this is why I did not have time to read your blogs this week and I missed that. I try to keep a balance between work and hobbies. For me my hobbies are my personal time and space where I can do things for myself and are vital as without them I would feel a slave to work.

My point is that its important when people love their work because I love my work too. However, it troubles me when people only talk about their work and all their relationships come from work. It troubles me when people do not have time to even read a book because they are absorbed with their work. Our profession can not characterize as and define our whole existence no matter how much we love what we do. Otherwise we will become slaves to work, we will become work.

(art by annie julie)

Survival of our species

I don’t know if you have heard that in a research it was found that Greeks work more hours and are far more underpaid compared to other countries in the rest of the world.
From all the species on earth we are the only ones that work more. All the other animals when they finish hunting and finding shelter have plenty of time to have some fun and play but we seem to be running out of time.

Lately I just feel that there is not enough time after work to enjoy life. Most of us work for more than 8 hours because our employers keep us overtime (sometimes without pay) and some of us have a second part-time job in order to cope with the expenses. Even the ones that work for only 8 hours waste more than 2 hours driving or being inside a bus in order to get to work. As a result many people suffer from work related stress. Enjoyment and creativity has been taken out of working and work becomes a daily routine and inevitably slavery. What is then the future of our survival? Are we going to turn into working robots that are not even appreciated?

After living for more than 4 years in the UK when I returned home I realised that I had lost something very important-my independence. Apart from the fact that it was difficult to get a job when I did find one I realised that the salary was just enough to pay the bills and the rent and then there was nothing left, I could not buy the food of the month. For this reason many people stay at home with their parents because they can’t afford to live on their own. As a result they lose their self confidence and self worth as they become dependent.

Sometimes I do feel like wonder woman. I work all day during the week and then I have the weekend to rest but I end up doing all the things that I couldn’t do during the week. At least I am lucky to have the energy to do creative things that remind me that I am actually living my life. I remember that I read somewhere that work is when you wish you are somewhere else. I try to minimize this feeling!

Three recommendations:
-Find a job that you like if possible-then you don’t really view it as work but as creativity that can give a sense of self-achievement.
-Try and have hobbies so that you don’t feel that you postpone life