A WorkLife Lesson: Juliet’s Story: Revisiting and Reevaluating Her Values
Juliet resigned from her job as a features writer at a tabloid newspaper.
Why? There were a few reasons. The most pressing being, she didn’t feel valued. She felt her work was undervalued and under-compensated. She was expected to work crazy hours for very low pay and to be thankful for it. She had been with the company for three years, and despite having written compelling story after compelling story, she was still expected to prove herself. She was continuously being told she was only as good as her next story.
The final straw was when Juliet was asked to help recruit the next group of freelancers. She was instructed to ask each of them to write three stories:
- A news story;
- An investigative feature;
- A human interest story.
Writing the stories was part of the interview process, and Juliet was OK with that. What she wasn’t OK with was knowing that if they were offered a position, they’d take the job on a wing and prayer, and these would be the first of the stories they would be expected to pitch for free, then hope they’d get paid for their work.
Juliet realised in that moment that her company would never change. They would never truly value creatives and pay them fairly. She could no longer be part of a company that behaved in this way and she resigned.
In this lesson, you will learn how Juliet reflected on her values to understand how she had come to be in this bad situation.
You will learn how she used this understanding to ensure her future WorkLife honoured all of her values.
In this lesson’s WorkLife Learning Assignment, you will consider your values and the meaning they hold for you.
In this lesson’s Continuous WorkLife Learning Assignment, you will develop a practice of continuous self-feedback through insightful questions to ensure you strive to live your WorkLife true to your values.