Personal and Professional?

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

The idea came while reading the tvtropes Just Bugs Me on Firefly. Mal Reynolds says he has respect for Inara, but not her profession (prostitution), and the argument is that if you disrespect someone's profession, you are automatically disrespecting them.

I don't think this is true, I think you can have utmost personal regard for someone, but not professional regard, and it shouldn't be offensive. For example I have a lot of respect for anyone who chooses to become a soldier, but I don't have a lot of respect (for personal beliefs) for the profession of soldiering. I don't have a lot of respect for most high powered executive positions, but some of the people I know who are in those positions I have a lot of personal respect for. I think the profession is bad for whatever reason, but just because I don't respect it doesn't mean I automatically don't respect someone who might have that job.

So do you agree, does disrespect for the job automatically mean disrespect for the person? Or can you separate the personal and the professional? If someone disrespects your job would you feel they had disrespected you?

CAPTCHA: Is it just me or does 1936 Essali sound like a type of luxury wine?

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

Disrespecting someone's profession is absolutely showing disrespect to them, because they still CHOSE that profession, and you're making a character judgment about the person, whether you mean to or not.

It's like that whole "hate the sin, not the sinner" bullshit.

 

[Thamian]

So do you agree, does disrespect for the job automatically mean disrespect for the person? Or can you separate the personal and the professional? If someone disrespects your job would you feel they had disrespected you?

No, just because someone I know happens to be an actor (i.e. one of a bunch of prop-breaking, cue-missing, adult children needing to be very carefully shepherded backstage by techies with the paitience of saints), doesn't mean I have any less respect for the man as a person (decent bloke, tells a good joke, parties hard, good drinker).

Separating personal and professional however I find to be most difficult internally, i.e. separating my personal life (a borderline psychotic mess), and my professional life (disciplined, competent technician who gets the job done and done well). Admitedly it probably shouldn't be something that's required, and it may just be the fact that I don't want my colleagues to see that other part of me that forces it but hey-ho.

As far as people disrespecting my job... Kinda gotten used to it tbh...