Where did all the professionals go?

Professionalism. We all know it's important. If you don't know, you are probably not a professional.

The problem I have with it, is that it is so clearly a facade. I have never met someone who is, in their essence of self, a professional or someone who wants to behave like one. The line between personal and professional has become increasingly blurry with the introduction of social media and text messages. When someone says something on facebook, there seems to be more room for personal judgement, comment or voice where in the past, this has not been possible in a professional environment. Does it make our jobs better? Well no. I would argue that it makes our jobs harder.

When someone tells me something on a professional facebook page, I find it impossible not to take personally. It might be good, it might be bad, it might just be plain unprofessional. Whatever the context, it interferes with my personal life. You can no longer escape the professional world to come home and be yourself, and you can no longer be yourself in a personal world, in case the professional world sees it.

It often makes me feel as though I am in limbo and leaves me wondering when I can be my true self, if ever. Ideally, I would like to go to work, come home and forget about the day, leave it behind and never think of it again, particularly if it was a bad one, but I come home to check my email, my facebook and my phone to find that I am being followed, watched and scrutinised on many levels and it is therefore simply, not a possibility. I have to stay professional all the time, despite some things that are said over social mediums being so clearly unprofessional, sometimes, just downright mean. I suspect this is an issue for almost everyone and leads me to believe that the truth is, professionalism is a facade. Social media is starting to show it for what it really is.

It leaves me wondering, if the world continues in this way, what will become of the world in which suited people make important decisions about the lives of the less well dressed and those who can't make the decisions for themselves. What will they do and where will they go when all the lies surface?