Besides having responsibilities to ourselves we often have personal obligations to family members that depend on us. During harsh times the head of the family often has to provide for his or her kids by performing job duties that don't add to personal sense of satisfaction or self-worth. When I and my mother moved to the US we had a difficult time of accommodating to a new environment and finding jobs that matched our personal description. In a short period of time we had to learn a new language and to get accustomed to a different cultural norms. Soon after arrival, it became clear to me that without college degree it would be very hard to find a decent job that would allow me to be independent. I enrolled into local community college and found a part time job in the gas station. I was unsatisfied with performing routine job duties and earning minimum wage, but I had to cope with my frustration at work in order to have an opportunity of helping my family and realizing my potential in the future. Despite the fact that my mom was a medical doctor with MBA degree from prestigious university and had 20 years of work experience in the field she also accepted jobs that were below her professional level. She couldn't find a job in the medical field considering that California's medical board required all international doctors to pass an extremely difficult test in order to get a practicing license. In order to have a chance to work as a doctor in US she had to spend several years studying just to prepare for an exam. In addition to achieving her personal career goals, my mom felt obliged to helping me get through college and supporting relatives in financial need. She started her professional career from beginning as if she didn't attend university for 7 years. For several years she worked in entry level positions such as cashier, server, and babysitter in order to fulfill her obligations to close family members.
We also accept job duties we don't like in order to have comfortable lifestyle. In a modern society it is really hard to balance personal moral principle with satisfactory standard of living. Most of us would like to afford going on annual vacations, driving fancy luxury cars, and leaving in the big two-story houses. In order to achieve this privileged lifestyle we have to chose from select few occupations even if we are not initially satisfied with essential duties of these jobs. It's not always possible to do something that you like and at the same time being able to provide for yourself. My mom's boyfriend, Nick, had always dreamed about making his living by writing novels. However, writing of a novel is long and demanding process that can take several years to complete. There is also no guarantee that the book will become bestseller even if it gets positive review by critics. In addition, the writer should have sufficient amount of money for the purpose of promotion and advertising. Nick couldn't both materialize his dream and have comfortable lifestyle without additional source of income. Most of his life he has worked as an accountant, a profession that clearly doesn't add to his sense of satisfaction, but provides material stability and personal recognition.
It is not always easy to maintain one's moral and ethical principles while performing job duties. Sometimes it is even hard to say if the decision is ethical or unethical withing context of the problem. Imagine a situation when you work for the company that experiencing financial difficulties that only insiders know about.Your friend has a large investment in the stock of the company and don't know about problems within the company. He comes to you and ask if he should buy a new house. Should you tell him the truth or should you stay true to the company? Neither of this options will result in an ethical conduct. Thus, In our line of work we are often required to either take choices that go against our principles or accept harsh consequences of going against professional responsibilities of the modern world. Our responsibilities to family members and a desire of a comfortable lifestyle make us think twice before we decide to abandon unsatisfactory job duties.
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