NationStates Jolt Archive

“Bob, people have a private life and people have a professional life, and usually those two hells are kept pretty separate. For instance, I don’t know that much about your home life, other than the fact that you treat your wife like a dog, your dog like a wife, and your son like an androgynous ne’er-do-well who drained your retirement nest-egg to open up a yarn shop in Minneapolis."

Dr Kelso: He posted his first profit this quarter

Dr. Cox Aces, and I'm guessing that's because Terrence doesn’t follow him around the shop all day telling him just exactly what color is “in” this season or showing all of the other employees that he is not in fact the boss of his own life. You see, the woman is everywhere! She’s there when I work out in the morning, when I work out in the car on the way to work, and when I work out when I get to work. I can’t seem to get away from her. And that used to be fine when she just came around for five minutes every month or so to feed on my dignity, but now, I’d honestly kill myself, Bob, if I wasn’t convinced that Jordan wouldn’t already be there waiting for me in the afterlife. You see, typical of her, she went ahead and signed us up for an eternal tandem bike-ride all along the banks of the River Styx.”

So for those of us who are actually working, how hard is it for you to keep your Professional life and Personal life apart? Does one usually seep into the other? Also, should your personal life really affect how well you are in your professional life? Does the fact that a woman may be a web-cam whore really affect how good of a teacher she is?

I sometimes wonder if I'd be able to keep my personal life and professional life apart, but knowing me, I'd try too hard and it'd all fall apart on me in one giant mess.

Discuss

As a teacher, I'd say that any teacher who also had a career as an adult actor on the side would definitely have a conflict of interest. I can't imagine a lot that's more awkward than that first parent-teacher conference when little Bobby's dad suddenly realizes his son's first-grade teacher is also his favorite actress from Cum Sluts IV or something.

As a teacher I find that I bring much less of my personal life to work with my colleagues than I did in previous jobs. This may be because I just don't feel that I have very much in common with 90% of the teachers I work with, who are generally married women in their 40's-60's with children (sometimes children my age). I'm also hesitant to get too personal with colleagues because there are a LOT of politics in a school's faculty, and things WILL be repeated, twisted, used against you, etc.

When I worked in the sports department of a newspaper (age 21-23) I was good friends with my coworkers, went out after work with them, discussed our personal lives, etc. It was a very different atmosphere--I was slightly younger, most of my coworkers were young and unmarried too, many of us had gone or were currently go to the same college, etc. Office politics were very minimal and, especially in our department, things were very laid-back and casual, so it was more appropriate. I really miss that.

Keeping your professional life and personal life apart... What do you mean by that exactly? Are you afraid that the grocery store clerk will start bagging his groceries at home as well? Or that the waitress would refuse to serve at home because she'd like to keep those two lives apart?

I keep the two totally separate, in that I do NOT mention NationStates at school, nor do I tell you guys what school I teach in. I don't socialize much with my coworkers out of school, either.

That's nothing -- I have three lives:

(1) online life
(2) IRL life
(3) work life

Info about #3 is rarely shared with #1 and #2, and info about #1 and #2 are almost never shared.

As my professional life at the moment involves calculating the liquid reserves that my employer has to have in order that the central financial authority here permits us to continue trading, and these values are in terms of billions, I regret to say that this does not overlap into my private life. There the reserves required are in terms of a few tens of hundreds, and the central financial authority doesn't give a damn.

So for those of us who are actually working, how hard is it for you to keep your Professional life and Personal life apart? sometimes... but it's hard to keep them seperate when your own family uses you for tech support. :(
Does one usually seep into the other? everytime someone's computer, printer, internet connection breaks... :(
Also, should your personal life really affect how well you are in your professional life? depends on the profession and your personal activities. a police narcotics officer who sells crack while off duty?
Does the fact that a woman may be a web-cam whore really affect how good of a teacher she is? if she needs the respect of her students?

I sometimes wonder if I'd be able to keep my personal life and professional life apart, but knowing me, I'd try too hard and it'd all fall apart on me in one giant mess. it depends on both. sometimes one's personal life can augment one's professional life and vice versa.

I fix computers as a hobby and it helped me alot when I started tech support. my dabbling in writing helped improve my typing speed and my crayfish always reminds me the importance of keeping busy. :tongue:

It's really very difficult for me, people who know what I do always ask me to "help" them with the IRS or their creditors or their retirement accounts. I don't want to know financial things about my friends/family. It makes me uncomfortable. I really REALLY don't like giving them advice either.

As far as keeping my private life quiet with my clients, it's pretty easy. I'm too involved in their personal things to even think about my own when we meet. I do have a slight problem though when a friend refers me to a client because they seem to want to know "how things went" and "how bad things are" and I have to tell them it's none of their business and then they get pissy.

I have no life, I have nothing to keep apart.

I have pretty much nothing in either at the moment to keep apart. Because I fail at life:(

We will sometimes share some sentences about our weekends during lunch; I do sometimes rant about work towards friends/family. Other than that, both lives don't affect each other that much.

If I were to have a female teacher again, and this teacher turned out to be my favourite star from cumsluts IV, I'd be... fascinated. Frankly, somebody who did this kinda film while having the skill to teach me anything that would be of value for me would certainly earn my interest.

Does the fact that a woman may be a web-cam whore really affect how good of a teacher she is?

It's camwhore, and no, it doesn't.

I have just start my first 'real' intership and it has been very hard to separete my personal life from my profissinal. Sometimes I can't even get to sleep because I can't take my mind off a dieing kid or some big surgery that might change someone's life for ever.
Just this week we lost a eleven years old girl who had leukemia. And now I'm sure that oncology is not for me. Too depressing.

Oh it doesn't help the fact that some of my friends are also my co-workers.

I probably talk about my work way too much. Mostly because it takes up so much of my time when I'm doing it, and no two jobs (I'm freelance) are the same, so the stories pile up. I don't hang out with co-workers as often as I should, since this is a network intensive industry. I'm not out drinking right now when I should be to strengthen bonds with some other locals that do my job. We recommend each other so often that it's good to be connected like that.

I'm shitty at networking.

When I'm working I don't often talk about my personal life unless we get really crazy bored. There's a level of personal I never discuss because then it wouldn't be personal. And because who the fuck cares?

I keep my professional and personal life separate. I don't mention anything about my personal life at work because I manage a lot of people and I know that if they become close to me that spells trouble for when I may have to reprimand them or worse.

In the past I have been more open at work, but those were in more laid back settings, and certainly not where I was in a managerial position.

Likewise, I don't mention my professional life to anyone either, because I don't think it matters or is very important for people to know what I do.

Kinda makes me think of when i would collect porn tape box covers and replace the faces of the "actors/actresses" with faces of my coworkers, and they would *somehow* end up on church and local grocery bulletin boards (with a slight augmentation so it wouldn't be explicitly nude)

Still unemployed, but it will depend heavily upon what district I work for. I know one that has many young teachers that go out together often. Others are staffed with many 50 year olds.

I do tend to let my students in on much of my life, but keep a strict limit on it. For example, I'll tell them that I plan to go to Vermont for the weekend with friends, but they don't know where I live, beyond that it is in Boston, nor do they know my living situation, beyond the fact that I do not live alone.

There are some things about my personal life that my longtime patients and coworkers know about. I don't necessarily volunteer the information -- it just sort of comes up in association.

I do tend to tell them just enough to make them too uncomfortable to ask anything about my personal life, for fear i may tell them even more.
I embellish where it suits me.

well.. my current employment is actually just a paid version of my hobbies, so they are so closely related that it is difficult. I do manage to though. I can seperate them and continue to enjoy my hobbies. Of course I do enjoy my work aswell.. so ask me on a day that I hate everything.

As for uni/what i will be doing... Apparently it is a bot of a faux pass to start talking about that really smelly fungal toenail I had to deal with at work over dinner...

So for those of us who are actually working, how hard is it for you to keep your Professional life and Personal life apart?

impossible, how else am I to chat up the help/customers?

Does one usually seep into the other?

yes, you can always tell what someone does at work just by looking at who they are.

boring jobs make boring people

should your personal life really affect how well you are in your professional life?

yes, your hobbies really effect your life along with how smashed you are in the morning

I sometimes wonder if I'd be able to keep my personal life and professional life apart

don't bother, your not a robot

Still unemployed

*throws change on floor* dance for my money monkey! dance!

Well, being young and in a very laid-back, not career-related job, it basically *is* my social life. Most of my best friends are people I work with/have worked with. I know a lot about the private lives of my managers, too... I think it's the company I work for. They highly encourage people to bond and be happy together and such. We're all one big loving family.

I keep the two totally separate, in that I do NOT mention NationStates at school, nor do I tell you guys what school I teach in. I don't socialize much with my coworkers out of school, either.

Yeah you don't want to find out the person you called a stupid idiot on NSG the other day to end up being your boss. Not that you ever would call someone an idiot Kat but you get what I mean.

As for my professional/working life (cause not all jobs I have had have been professional jobs) I do not see the need to keep them separate, that doesn't mean I go out making sure they are intertwined but I have made some very good friendships from people I have worked with and I wouldn't try to break that up, but those I get well with at work I would go with them down to the pub, or might have them and their wife/girlfriend over for a BBQ or coffee, some I even went out every now and then and had a round of golf, some of these people have been my boss' some same level co-workers and others I have managed and I haven't yet had a major problem with any of these friendships.


The one thing I would advise doing is not to have a sexual relationship with someone who works with you, that my friends is a big mistake.

Professional and personal are almost one in the same for me. I'm a grad student and a teaching assistant. When I'm not working or attending classes, I'm at my apartment grading shit, studying, or researching like crazy. Sometimes my collegues will get me to go to a bar with them or I'll play some Xbox 360, but that doesn't happen anywhere near as much as I'd like. If I'm posting on the NSG forums, chances are I'm grading papers and I need something to prevent me from going nuts... Of course, it's still summer so I have a little more free time because I don't have to teach. Oh well, only one more year for my M.A. and then God knows how long it will take me to get my Ph.D.

I find it easy to keep my personal life out of my work life. Personal discussions are generally limited to "Are you still breathing?" kind of topics and none of us really divulge much to our co-workers unless they are close freinds of ours.

I find it however, exceedingly hard to keep my work life out of my personal life. I am a DJ and mascot for the most listened to station in 50 miles in any direction. People are always interested in asking about "The exciting life of a radio DJ" and hundreds of other topics related to my job. I go places and people recognize me from live events and other such things and I am often bombarded with questions, gifts (I get at least one person a week try to give me something during holidays and the summer), and other things. It can be nerve racking... outside of my work life I have started to become reclusive and only go to certain places with certain people. I'm not even safe around family on some days.

I find it impossible. I am more than just my work, but not much more.

my folks run their own business, and have done pretty much since i was born. its always been pretty mixed up as a result. these days its even more mixed as i now work for them.

i see them every day at work, i see them every day when i come home (i still live with them, too, for the time being). it can be difficult when your first words in the morning are discussing work to be done that day, and difficult when your dad no longer referrs to us as a "family" but, instead, a "team." since i work until about 7 or 8 in the evening, its sometimes hard to get away from it all. i wouldn't recommend it.

and now my g/f is working for us, which makes things even more complicated!:eek:

my folks are their job. they have no friends, no holidays, no time off, no weekends, work 12 hour + days, and i don't like it. i never wanted to end up like that, but i kinda am, largely because they matter so much to me and i want to help them by working hard and making things work for all of us.

I try to keep my personal and professional life seperate. Of course, I'm not the one who brings my personal life to work, it's other people who do that for me. The rumor mill runs 24/7.

my folks are their job. they have no friends, no holidays, no time off, no weekends, work 12 hour + days, and i don't like it. i never wanted to end up like that, but i kinda am, largely because they matter so much to me and i want to help them by working hard and making things work for all of us.

:fluffle: I used to work for the same company as my mother and older brother...dear God its hell enough when you only occasionally see them

I have two jobs. One is in a theatre, and everyone there goes out drinking together etc. It's more like a night out with your mates than a job. The second, well I work for my boyfriends sister, so I can't keep that seperate either.

I used to work in a shop with a bunch of people I would never even speak to outside of work. I hated it. I much prefer working in a place where everyone's mates with each other.

We're all one big loving family.
...with a fondness for watersports?