Something I want to declare here: I love technology. It is part of my life, both personal and professional. There is no hard frontier between the two for me. Technology blends.
I’m saying this because in the French lifestyle there is this very strong separation between your professional life and your personal life, and work is perceived as the “evil” that consumes you and prevents you from living a happy life. Work is really the thing that gives you money, but eventually it’s like a prison where you just wait for the release time when finally you can retire. It is really like that! This leads to a very strange situation where you go to a place where you spend 30% of your time with people that you don’t know and don’t care to know, that is just weird and sad. But again, it is really like that! You see some people hating their job so much but who still come just for the money. Why does it have to be like this?
I’ve always found myself strange for actually liking what I do and being interested in it “outside of work” or go out with my coworkers “outside of work”, I’ve seen myself “uncool”, because “uh uh you don’t have a life outside of work!”. Well, thinking about it, if I wanted a so called “life outside of work”, I think I could have one. The reason for the way it is, is because I like what I do and it’s my life! Yes, I enjoy attending tech events “outside of work”, tech is occupying 80% of my mind, yes I enjoy going out with my coworkers, thank goodness! Yes, I want to know them, and yes I could be friends with them. There is no big limit for me, technology is part of my fabric, it is like that! However indeed not everybody has the same mindset so it’s not always reciprocal, but it is like that.
I just want to pin here that there is nothing bizarre in liking what you do to the point where it becomes in fact your life. This doesn’t mean that I work on week-ends or at 3AM, but it means that I care for my field AT ALL TIMES. So, imagine a workplace where you would work only with friends, that would be the best! That’s really how I envision the ideal job. Until then, let’s make the most of what I have and ENJOY.
Yes, technology is my life and it IS pretty cool like that 😉
#ThursdayAfterwork
