A Man Wants to Work

Time was when a man worked his whole career in one company. Black suit, white shirt, black tie - 9 to 5 till 65 with a gold watch at retirement. Nowadays (did I really just say that?), he’s not only likely to change jobs every few years, he may just as likely change careers – and more than once. (And I’ll bet you didn’t even get past the word “man” without a pause, did you? Good for you.)

It’s no surprise that what you do is not who you are, now less so than ever. Being a Rotarian probably says a whole lot more about who you are than does your job title. To be honest, I can’t keep up with job titles anyway. I met someone recently whose title is Search Engine Optimizer. Does your club have one of those? And my still current favorite – Chief Yahoo. What Rotary classification is that exactly? Worse, it’s getting to the point where doing only one thing at a time is old hat. Ask for a resume, and you’ll most likely get the response, “which one?” To which you reply, “the web service, e-commerce, marketing consultant/investor one… I think.”

The Rotary classification system is used a number of ways. In its best form, it keeps clubs from becoming guilds. Diversity in membership has many benefits, and besides, how many lawyers do you really want to have a meal with every week? (Sorry.) But it can also be used to prevent the membership of service-minded people who don’t fit the traditional, professional mold.

Now, everybody wants the mayor and the Fortune 500 CEO in their club. (My club has openings for these classifications, by the way.) But if you wait tables by night so you can perform humanitarian service by day, are you a professional philanthropist? I think so. And if you endeavor to adhere to the Four Way Test and embody the Service Above Self ideal, is there room for you in Rotary? I hope so, whatever your job titles are.

Classification in general is useful. It helps us to make some black-and-white sense of an infinitely grey, no, infinitely colored, world. But next when you meet someone for the first time, and you hear yourself say “what do you do,” realize that you just may be missing out on some spectacular colors.

As always, your comments, questions, and criticisms are welcome. To provide feedback or to read more about Rotary’s Next Generation, go to http://rotarynextgeneration.blogspot.com.