|
Proprietrix -> RE: Right to Know (6/15/2006 2:04:23 PM)
|
I guess I can kind of understand what you’re saying, but I still would find it extremely difficult to build a relationship with someone who is so secretive about their career.
I see this a lot with people online who get their paycheck from public funds. For me (and I’m not saying this is the case with you, just how it tends to come across to me), it’s almost like folks online want to inflate their own ego by saying "I can’t comment. It’s a government job." Like, I’m really a cook for the local head start kids, but I want to feel more important, so I’ll make it out like I work for the secret service. It comes across like being a player and I think to myself, why fuck around with this person. They could have just said "I’m a cook."
"Working for the government" is a very broad term. Government jobs range from city, to county, to state, to federal.
A "government worker" can be a janitor, a bus driver, nurse, physical therapist, judge, clerk, attorney, secretary, receptionist, investigator, dentist, president of the United States, telephone operator, construction worker, agriculture, animals, human services, psychology, and on and on and on….. Saying "I work for the government" tells me no more about one’s chosen career than saying "I don’t work for the government."
Damn near any job can be a government job. All that tells someone is that your paycheck comes from tax money.
I don’t know the exact figures, but I would take a guess that about half of Americans are working "government jobs". If I say "what do you do for a living?" and someone answers "I work for the government." I’m thinking… umm yeah, so does half the population, but I didn’t ask you where the funding for your job comes from. I kind of wanted to know what you do. Are you crunching numbers? Styling hair? Helping people? Saving the whales? Sweeping floors? Icing cakes? Filing papers? On the phone? Modeling your body? Going up in airplanes? Saving lives? Building buildings? Unclogging drains? Selling cars? Putting out fires?
When I ask someone about their job, I’m really not all that concerned with who signs their paycheck, or what their chain of command is. I’m more interested in what they have chosen to do with their life.
Maybe you could give someone a general idea of what you do, without even mentioning the fact that the government issues your paycheck. The secretary for the district attorney could just say he’s a secretary. A prison warden could say he works in security or corrections. A judge could say he works in law, or he’s a mediator, or he works in the courthouse. The fish and game warden can say he works in wildlife or with animals. Even a highly specialized position can be broken down. Maybe you’re the one person in a town of 500 people who specializes in jury selection. At the bare minimum you could say "I help out in criminal cases." or "I work with groups of people." or "I help settle disputes." It’s giving someone a general idea of how you choose to spend your days, without giving the specifics of your employment, and without sending their mind on this wild goose chase of all the 25,000 different types of government jobs.
But, like everything else, it’s left up to you what you do and don’t tell someone. I’m just saying don’t be surprised when people decline to go forward if they feel you’re being too secretive for them or if they feel you are putting on airs to inflate your own ego.
(And none of that was said in anyway against you zumala. I'm just trying to give you the mind-set of someone on the receiving end of the words "I work a government job.")
|
|
|
|
