This week I had a conversation with a friend who was been working at company X for the past two years. While it was lovely to catch up with her, I was surprised by how much she defined herself by the place she was working at. She would refer to herself as a “company name-ee” and talk about the firm in almost a cultish way. What I found interesting was she would talk about her friends working at other firms, and her body language would suggest that those firms were not on par as the one she was at. It made me wonder how much my behavior was shaped by my associations. In a way, I reflected on myself and the labels I’ve accrued (“Middkid”, etc). Do they create a barrier and implicit judgement on others who do not fit those labels?
