In my just-published book Working Assets: A Career Guide for Peers I wrote what I did from the perspective of an individual who has been employed at jobs for over 30 years.
Quite frankly coworkers don’t always want to hear about everything that’s going on in your life. A simple confession like: “I forgot to use deodorant this morning. I must get some at the drugstore now” doesn’t need to be brought to life.
IWDs–Individuals With Disabilities–aren’t given a free pass to have anything less than an acceptable demeanor on the job and elsewhere.
The remedy should be to flaunt our identity.
Yet I’m realistic that as persons who have been shut out of employment we have to work twice as hard to get half as far once we’re on the job.
Grateful to be given the job we’re often loyal and dedicated employees who outperform coworkers who don’t have disabilities.
This should give us a halo around our job performance that enables coworkers to view us favorably.
Not so fast. Seeking justice on one job I was denied a promotion.
Being a hard worker doesn’t guarantee you’ll get a stellar performance review and top-notch pay raise either. Something I will talk about in a future blog entry.
The playing field isn’t level. Which is why though on one job I could talk with coworkers about everything I chose not to.
In the coming blog entry I’ll talk about one surprise suggestion I offered in The World of Work chapter in Working Assets.
WorkingAssets 