by Anncan

Created on: August 18, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

This title certainly strikes a chord in me. I'm recently retired at much too young an age, looking at 63yrs in one month. I want to share the events that have led up to this but also want to include each of the three conditions listed in the title that have marked my history of employment.

As a teen I found boundless opportunities for gainful employment with babysitting and coat room managing at a nearby club. I was trusted and felt valued any time I was called upon to work. Still, in the late 50's and early 60's it was humbling and sometimes tedious. I didn't even consider a fair pay rate. As a sitter I was considered among the 'social outcasts' who couldn't get a date for the weekend nights. As a coatroom clerk I had to deal with obnoxious drunken patron who would spill beer on me as I retrieved their coat.

From my earliest adult employment I was 'placed' in work positions by virtue of my membership in a religious community. It was job security but certainly left much to be desired. First, I was thrown into the classroom (still a teen) without coursework on classroom management or even how to plan curricula. I grabbed onto a retired Sister in my first house and she mercifully coached me along and gave me a passion for teaching that I hadn't identified among my reasons for opting into Church work. Cooking, housekeeping and nursing were considered too menial and only for the 'intelligence challenged' women who joined.

In every church position across 40+ years we were expected to assume additional duties to our fulltime position. For even the first 25 years we didn't see a paycheck as it went directly to the Superior at that mission. Inspite of certain drawbacks I stayed with it through many changes in the opportunity to select a group of compatible women with whom I could live and work. I advanced in education to realize three career changes in those years and still left the work after more than 40 years feeling inadequate and devalued. I must admit that this is not totally due to external circumstance but equally impacted by deeply personal issues. Among my personal disabilities was and remains an addiction to food. Obesity was the most profound feeders of low self worth. It accentuated issues of depression and anger that hampered relationships on the job.

By the time I left religious community living I had made peace with my basic disabilities and am committed to medicines and therapy that serve to keep that animal at bay. I have succeeded in losing 100+ pounds

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