The Meaning of Work: Have Stereotypes and Media Ruined Our Chance at Enjoying Work? As people living on this earth, we are all influenced by work. Whether we are in a poor country or a rich country, whether we are living on the streets or living in a mansion we are all influenced by work in some way. Throughout this essay I will bring up several topics on how work is related to everyone living and what work means to me. I grew up in a decently well off family when it came to money. I did not have to worry about getting a job at a young age, but I was never handed everything in life.
I had to work for it whether it be through chores or through owing money back for what I wanted to get. My father lost his job several times while I was growing up. This was because either a company was shutting down or because he would refuse to cheat in order to make money. This was hard on our family and because my mom was a pre-school teacher, there was not a lot of money coming into the house as I became older. I mentioned several times to my parents about getting a job and they were neither for it nor against it. If I wanted a job I could get one, if I did not want a job I did not have to get one.
My parents wanted me to focus on school and my sports, as well as being a kid. They wanted me to enjoy the years that I had growing up. Even though I did not have a job all through high school and I did not have to get a job while in college, I wanted to start making my own money. Since I was a spring admit at UNCW, I had the entire fall semester to work and take a few classes. I had a plan when I would come to Wilmington and I had to work in order to save money. My plan was to move into an apartment and pay rent along with utilities.
Even though I was getting some money from financial aid, Wilmington is expensive and I needed to save some money. Furthermore, the meaning of “work” to me is doing something, whether it is a job or possibly school related, that makes me a better person and helps me support my family and me. For example, because I work at an animal hospital, I am helping the animals and learning new material every day. This makes me a better and more knowledgeable worker because I am learning all of this information and helping others as well. I also get paid for doing this job therefore, that supports my family and me.
T. V. and advertisements usually express work negatively. This is especially true if the job is lower class like a construction worker. Actors in movies usually do not have a good outlook on work. They most of the time have a smart remark to make about them having to go to work. Moreover, I try to keep a positive outlook on the word “work”. Many of the employees that I work with at Needham Animal Hospital think otherwise. Most of them dread coming into work at six in the morning and I understand that, I do not like coming into work that early either.
To me, if an employee comes into work with a bad attitude then their day and work experience is going to go downhill from there. I enjoy coming into work with a positive look on life and with an attitude that maybe a dog will not poop on me today. A working person makes work how they want it. If they want it to be horrible, then it will be horrible. If they want to have a good day and keep a positive look on work, then even though something may go wrong, at least they have a positive attitude. My mom always taught me that attitude is everything and she was right.
It can make a bad situation into a better situation. Unquestionably, the media has a huge influence on how we interpret work. There are many movies and shows that depict work as a negative. A show like The Office shows work in a negative light. Even though this show is a comedy, the boss is always messing up and no one is actually working. This show generates an idea that hopefully an office job will be like this; laid back and easy. There are also many shows that depict work in a positive light, an example of this would be the show House.
Although this show illustrates some negatives in the hospital work environment, this show gives an appropriate view on how hospitals work and what the employees go through on a day to day basis. Reality T. V. is the most interesting to me, not because I am interested but because it is hilarious to me to watch these famous people with their struggles. A show like Keeping Up with the Kardashians is a great example of this. I do not choose to watch this show but if I catch a glimpse of it I get lost into the show. The Kardashians are extremely rich and even though I have watched their shows, I am still not positive on what they do for work.
To me, all they do is shop and complain. This show makes ordinary people think that they can shop and complain and not have to work and they will be like the Kardashians. Generally speaking, there are usually stereotypes in work styled shows. An example of this would be the show Scrubs. There is a classic rich “white girl”, a nerd, a colored man, etc. There are many stereotypical jokes displayed throughout this show. For example, every blond white girl is not always rich and every African American man or woman is not always ghetto. I experience some of these stereotypes at my work.
We have two Asians that work as vet assistants and the manager of the kennel always has something to say about them being Asians. She says that every employee makes fun of them, but I have never experienced anyone at work making fun of them besides her. Following this further, my least favorite type of stereotype are the stereotypes that are involved with women. Women have many stereotypes especially when it comes to a work environment. A major stereotype for women in the workplace is that women cannot do a man’s job. I grew up in a family that told me that I could do anything a guy could do and that I could even do it better than a guy.
I take this with me everywhere and apply it to everything that I am involved with like work or working out at the gym. Culture and media say that women cannot do physical labor like a man can do. This involves construction work, being a firefighter, being a police person, etc. Society says that a woman’s job is geared more towards caregiving and light work. An example of this would be a waitress, pre-school teacher, and a nurse. In addition, with the jobs that I have had, I have not encountered anything like this. I have worked with animals my entire life and all of the employees that I work with can handle themselves well.
Most of whom I work with are females and we are all very strong physically and strong mentally. We can handle dog fights and we can handle aggressive dogs. Not only are we dealing with animals themselves but we have to clean up after them. This is dirty work and it is nothing that women are expected to do. A stereotype that I have heard a lot throughout my life is that women have to act like ladies all of the time. I do understand that women need to be polite and have manners, but I am not wearing a dress with heels to pick up dog stool.
Pursuing this further, since I am an exercise science major, I am most of the time never dressed up. I am not able to have my hair down or nice makeup on nor am I able to wear nice jewelry. I enjoy my spandex, dry-fit top, and sneakers, but it is nice to dress up every once in a while. As stated before work is very important to everyone whether they like it or not. If I never got a job I think it would be hard to want to get one with what culture and the media say about work. I love my job and not many employees can say that. Although there are bad times at work, a positive attitude can help make it better.
