Self Assessment

 I just read yesterday's post, and I think I sounded just a bit narcissistic. I didn't mean to. I got the idea to write about my career at the phone company, thinking there were a few juicy bits in there, and you must know that, at least in my experience at blue collar type jobs, most of us think we're good at what we do and, who knows, probably just a little bit better than some, and maybe, on a good day, just a little better than most.  Well, just walk into a work place and tell someone they do shitty work, and see what happens.  No matter how much that particular person might have just been bad-mouthing the company or saying how much he hates his job, he thinks he's good at what he does.

The truth is that, in general, I regard my overall "career," (if you want to call it that) at the phone company as sort of a lukewarm failure. I showed up, I got paid--that was the actual motivation, to be clear--and over the years some jobs were good, some bad, some I was good at, some not so good.  The last place I worked at, as a matter of fact, was the latter. I could list reasons and everything, if I wanted to preserve the ego, but no, I was in a type of job I was no good at. Not even close. Was it all bad?  No. Like I said, I got paid.  Was it all good?  Well, no.

But, my point, I think it's worth the effort to possess an accurate self-assessment. If you're bad at something, learn from it--either get better at it, or better at avoiding it, or better at enduring it--whatever. But it probably wouldn't do much good to get better at lying about it. And, if you're good at something, might as well own it.  Why not?  If you got it, flaunt it. As Elmore James, the American Blues guitarist sang, "You got to shake your moneymaker." Of course tooting your own horn might best be reserved for resumes,  or classic, ground-breaking autobiographies, or possibly anything after the third date--or possibly before the third date. I'm not sure.

I'm never going to make 500 words, but I went way over yesterday, so there. And, I give this post 3 out of 5 stars, mainly for impeccable punctuation.