Personal Identity In The Workplace
In both my personal identity and my identity as a worker, I crave information. I am the most comfortable when I know exactly what I am supposed to be doing in any given work situation. When I feel prepared, I believe that the quality of my work improves in proportion. Working for this volunteer program has greatly tested my comfort zone when it comes to a lack of information. I had originally thought I would be doing the same conservation work in the same location for the same amount of time every day. The reality could not have been any more different. I rarely worked in the same location more than once during the whole two weeks, and I never knew where I was going to be working until we arrived there. It was originally agreed that I would
be working from 8am to 12pm, but that was apparently a rough estimate. Instead, we’d usually leave to commute to our work site at 7:30am, arrive there any time between 7:45am and 8:15am, and would finish work any time between 12:00pm and 2:00pm. I also never knew what we were going to be doing until we started working. For me, there were more unknowns than I was used to dealing with. There are a number of reasons why I knew so little information. The largest one is the language barrier. I know next to no Spanish. Being immersed in the language here in the Galapagos has taught me some basic words and phrases, but not enough to hold a full conversation. My supervisor knows little English, so most information that he provides is through simple words and hand gestures. Because most of the work we did was physical labor, it’s easier to explain what to do by example than by trying to explain it verbally. If anything, this language barrier is my fault, because I had the time and resources to become more proficient in Spanish if I wanted to. Instead, I just need to learn to be more easygoing with this and other work experiences. It wouldn’t kill me to embrace some more unknowns in my future.
be working from 8am to 12pm, but that was apparently a rough estimate. Instead, we’d usually leave to commute to our work site at 7:30am, arrive there any time between 7:45am and 8:15am, and would finish work any time between 12:00pm and 2:00pm. I also never knew what we were going to be doing until we started working. For me, there were more unknowns than I was used to dealing with. There are a number of reasons why I knew so little information. The largest one is the language barrier. I know next to no Spanish. Being immersed in the language here in the Galapagos has taught me some basic words and phrases, but not enough to hold a full conversation. My supervisor knows little English, so most information that he provides is through simple words and hand gestures. Because most of the work we did was physical labor, it’s easier to explain what to do by example than by trying to explain it verbally. If anything, this language barrier is my fault, because I had the time and resources to become more proficient in Spanish if I wanted to. Instead, I just need to learn to be more easygoing with this and other work experiences. It wouldn’t kill me to embrace some more unknowns in my future.