jamesteufel.com

While at the gym, I read on the news that employers and schools are censoring people’s use of MySpace and Facebook. Some are also using these websites to refuse or terminate employment or admission. In addition some employers and schools are forcing employees or students to modify or remove their pages on these websites. This is another example of how the boundaries between personal life and professional life continue to blur in the United States. The primary question should be: does or could this person effectively carry out work tasks? This unfortunately is not the top priority of those people in organizations who have an unhealthy fixation on “professionalism.” Similar to a Dimitri Martin skit that goes something like “A lot of people don’t like bumper stickers. I don’t mind bumper stickers. They are a shortcut for me to know that we will never be friends.,” I don’t mind people who express their unproductive fixation on professionalism. It is a shortcut for me to know that they likely add little to the work or school environment (at least based on my experience with those who professionalize professionalism). One of my favorite quotes sums up the professionalism problem quite well. “Image is halfway around the block before substance has its shoes on.” I have found that professionalists’ arguments lack depth, though the promoters of the ideas seem to believe that the scope of professionalism is unbounded. The professionalists plan to reduce all of the variability of not only the work place but also of life in its entirety. I have found it interesting that the professionalists are more than happy to prescribe actions to others. However, when one questions the professionalists means or ends, a person is labeled as unprofessional—or lacking social value. The professionalist movement is an unhealthy extension of the unenlightened bureaucracy. When bureaucracies destroy diversity, they cannot contribute new ideas or products. Their expansion therefore inevitably reaches a point of obsolescence. As bureacracies grow with little to no variability, they also grow beyond their realistic scope. When no one can question or act in discord with a bureaucracy, the bureaucracy not only damages itself but also damages society as a whole. I encourage the professionalists to focus more on work product than on people’s personal lives. Many of the geniuses throughout the centuries would not meet the current professionalists’ standards. Do we want more Albert Einstein-s, Mark Twain-s, Vincent Van Goghs, Marie Curie-s, Amelia Earhart-s etc. in the work place? The professionalists apparently do not.