How Occupation and Employment can affect Identity

From Wikinfo

A person�s Identity is the way that person sees himself/herself and the way other people see him/her. Identities develop as we come to see ourselves in a particular way. Others come to see us in certain ways. We may accept or reject the other�s viewpoint. Paid work or the lack of it has a large impact on identity. The question, �What are you worth?� means, �What do you earn?� In general a worker�s value is considered to be what that person earns. There are exceptions. Plumbers can earn more than some University academics. Academics have higher status. Charity workers, care workers, nurses, teachers and similar employees are seen as more useful than for example, door-to-door salesmen/women, advertisers etc. Carers may have no earnings but do useful work. Despite exceptions a person�s earnings have an enormous impact on self-worth and in most cases it is felt rightly or wrongly, earnings roughly reflect a person�s usefulness. Incomes in Britain are highly unequal. Most people enjoy or endure below average incomes while a few are very rich. "Well over half the UK population lives below average incomes. A small number of rich people get enormous prestige. Full time workers spend a large part of their time working. During weekdays paid workers typically have about two or three hours leisure time. What happens when a person is working has a profound effect on character. Some people can have reason to feel guilty about what they do during their work. A secretary may have to lie to cover for her employer. A therapist may not feel able to report inappropriate behaviour by colleagues. Such people sometimes reason away what they do or get into denial about it. In those cases they can continue to feel good about themselves but their moral sense may be weakened. If normal people have to do things they feel are immoral most working days this will affect their self-respect and self-esteem. Self-esteem can also be damaged if a worker has to accept regular put-downs from employers, customers, co-workers etc. Workers like waiters and shop assistants routinely have to listen without answering back when customers tell them off for matters that are not their fault. Employers and co-workers can behave similarly. Those with low status work tend to find their self-esteem frequently damaged. Spending (well earned) money tends to improve self-esteem. Max Weber and Karl Marx wrote important works on employment and status. Marx simplified the class structure to the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat. For Marx all other distinctions were unimportant and artificial. The exploited class, (the Proletariat) would eventually overcome the tyranny of the Bourgeoisie and establish a Communist utopia. Incidentally utopia can mean, �Nowhere�. Weber saw class as groups of people with similar skills competing with each other for economic benefits. Status groups were to Weber not necessarily the same as class A person�s first paid job is a major step towards adult independence. Those who have not got paid employment are in some way like children. Unemployed people sometimes give messages like, "Don't blame me. I do voluntary work." Society encourages unemployed people to feel useless and guilty. Sometimes this is justified but not always. A great many factors affect our identities. Our gender affects it, as does our ethnicity, our age, our sense of our moral worth. Important aspects of this are, what a person does, what a person earns and how well that person earns his/her money. The way we earn our money can be problematic. It can also be problematic if we do not earn our money.

Reference.

The Course Texts for the Open University Course, DD100.