Putting your work face on

I’m sure you all know one woman who can’t go out in public without “putting her face on”. Maybe it’s you. Maybe it’s your partner. Maybe it’s your sister. But she has 25 bottles of product in the shower, and the bathroom counter is covered with make up and hair products and appliances.

Guess what? We all experience the feeling of “putting our face” on when it comes to our identity.

You go to a party, and they ask what you do, and if you’re lucky you have a nice easy answer. “I’m an engineer” or “I’m a nurse.” or “I’m in sales.” But if you don’t, you fall back on something else. You put your work face on. You say “I’m taking time off between jobs.” or “I’m a stay at home dad.” Even when we quit working, we don’t say “nothing” or “I don’t know”, we give it a label, a “face”, and we say “I’m retired”. Or maybe you say “I volunteer”.

We all put a work face on.