Jobs and Emotional Distance
Most of us work because we need to work in order to support ourselves and we also work because work provides us with some sense of self-satisfaction and/or importance. What's the first question you are asked when you meet someone (outside of "where do you live?")? It's usually, "What do you do?" Work, therefore, has an important place in our world.
Medical professionals, too, want to see themselves through their jobs. I was reading one of this weeks' Grand Rounds features on how much emotion we should show on the job, or if we should show it, and it started me thinking.
The author talked about a study that appeared to indicate that employers don't want their employees showing emotion. The study seemed to indicate that negative emotions should, in fact, be hidden. This just doesn't make any sense to me as a psychologist but I began to look at how mental health professionals handle emotion on the job.
First, of all, do they love their jobs and love what they're doing? I've met some who are truly wonderful people who are, as the expression goes, the salt of the earth. They work for their patients and, even in the most difficult of situations, advocate for them. It is often a draining task, but they tell me that they love what they do because they help people.
Helping people, granted, is a wonderful job. In medicine and in psychology, many of us are not taught how to deal with emotion, unless it is inappropriate emotion. We get the idea that we must be a blank, "professional" slate on which nothing is reflected. I suppose this is in the service of helping us to deal with difficult situations.
I've talked to psychiatrists and psychologists who have had patients who went through horrendous things and it took a toll on them. They don't often admit to their feelings, even to themselves. I've even talked to two oncologists who are wonderful people and maintain their joy despite the dreaded disease they fight on a daily basis. They are not afraid to express their joy, their frustration and their anger, when appropriate.
Thinking back, I recall one oncologist, in particular, who affirmed for me the standard that should be set for medical professionals. He was a youngish man in his 30s and he was treating my mother for terminal cancer. This man came to my mother's hospital room and sat and fed her lunch when she couldn't sit up to eat. He talked with encouragement and smiled and laughed and made all of us feel he really cared for my mother as a person and for my family and our pain. God bless him wherever he is today.
Related Topics: Anger Management, Managing Job Stress
Medical professionals, too, want to see themselves through their jobs. I was reading one of this weeks' Grand Rounds features on how much emotion we should show on the job, or if we should show it, and it started me thinking.
The author talked about a study that appeared to indicate that employers don't want their employees showing emotion. The study seemed to indicate that negative emotions should, in fact, be hidden. This just doesn't make any sense to me as a psychologist but I began to look at how mental health professionals handle emotion on the job.
First, of all, do they love their jobs and love what they're doing? I've met some who are truly wonderful people who are, as the expression goes, the salt of the earth. They work for their patients and, even in the most difficult of situations, advocate for them. It is often a draining task, but they tell me that they love what they do because they help people.
Helping people, granted, is a wonderful job. In medicine and in psychology, many of us are not taught how to deal with emotion, unless it is inappropriate emotion. We get the idea that we must be a blank, "professional" slate on which nothing is reflected. I suppose this is in the service of helping us to deal with difficult situations.
I've talked to psychiatrists and psychologists who have had patients who went through horrendous things and it took a toll on them. They don't often admit to their feelings, even to themselves. I've even talked to two oncologists who are wonderful people and maintain their joy despite the dreaded disease they fight on a daily basis. They are not afraid to express their joy, their frustration and their anger, when appropriate.
Thinking back, I recall one oncologist, in particular, who affirmed for me the standard that should be set for medical professionals. He was a youngish man in his 30s and he was treating my mother for terminal cancer. This man came to my mother's hospital room and sat and fed her lunch when she couldn't sit up to eat. He talked with encouragement and smiled and laughed and made all of us feel he really cared for my mother as a person and for my family and our pain. God bless him wherever he is today.
Related Topics: Anger Management, Managing Job Stress
1 Comments:
I hope it isn't too late to comment on a post that has been archived. I am looking for the one where you referred to "container babies", and I came across this one I had not read before. I don't know if you'll see it or not but I will respond anyway.
First, I am so sorry your mother had cancer. But what a wonderful doctor she had. Some of us don't even have family members who are so caring. I'm glad he was her doctor and I'm glad he is a doctor. He really reaises the bar for the others, doesn't he?
I have recently come to the conclusion that my employer is not for me. I process medical claims all day on a PC. Most of the time the work load equals the production rate of the employees. Sometimes it is a heavier work load, so we work harder and more hours. On rare occaisions it is hard to find enough to fill a day, even at a slower pace that happens naturally when the work load is very light.
No matter what the situation, my employer will not allow us to talk to one another. We are lectured frequently about it and are told that managers from other areas are keeping an eye on us and report to my supervisor or manager about it! We are the smallest department, only 6 people, and we are not close with one another, so we really have nothing but WORK to talk about. Even so, they tell us to not talk. I have tried to explain how I've learned things about work by talking with others, and that it improves my performance and ultimately the company's bottom line. But they are just so stuck on enforcing the no talking, it is absurd. I should add, and this is the consensus of all of us in my department as well as several who previously worked there but quit, that their training is very inadequate and if we didn't talk when we take our breaks and lunch, none of us would have learned the job from the training alone. Their no-talking attitude is one of many that makes me feel we are not a good match. I've been there 3 years, so I must be slow to get it?! I try to give something/someone ample time before making a decision like that, but ... ding ding ding.. this company's time is up!
I'm glad for your blog because in deciding to move on, I am also thinking I'd rather do something directly with people. I want to be in a position of caring and helping. I love school too, so even at 53 I am thinking of nursing school.
Guess I needed to vent! Thanks for the chance even if no one ever sees it!
~Tasker
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