Of Course You Would

My husband gave me the nicest compliment the other day.  Now it’s taken me a few days to recognize it as a compliment but you’ll see why in a moment.  It had nothing to do with the size of my hiney (smart man that he is, he does not engage in body part discussions), how my dress looked or what I might have done differently with my hair.  It had to do with my work ethic.  It had to do with what I do for people.  It had to do with remembering that getting ahead is not as important as how you got there.  It was so simple.  All he said was, “Of course you would.”

I have a thing for editing, organizing, designing and spelling.  This comes in very handy in the pursuit of my current occupation of communications.  I really enjoy putting together newsletters, editorials, pictorials, slide shows, advertorials: you name it, I like doing it.  One thing I also like doing is resumes.  I’ve been working extensively on mine and though it still undergoes periodic tweaks for the most part, I’m happy with it in its current form:

If you thought I was above shameless self-promotion, well, you are wrong.  This out of work thing is driving me mental so I will be as shameless as necessary (almost).

In the midst of this, I have a friend to whom I offered some design help for their resume.  I also ran a job bank for 7 years so I’ve got some “cred” behind me when I offer.  I was telling my husband about this to which he asked, “Was there a (they who will not be named) in your class ?”  This question puzzled me somewhat as I didn’t see what difference it made.  His point ? Why are you helping the competition ?  One less person vying for a job in the field.  I clarified that this was not the case.

You’d think that would be the end of it but no.  My husband, my sugar-daddy, my lump of love looks me dead in the eye and says, “You’d help them anyway wouldn’t you ?” I tried to pretend I wouldn’t.  I tried to be heartless.  I tried, I really did and I responded with a vehement, “No siree bob, I wouldn’t help them !”  He appeared to see right through my falsetto protestations because without missing a beat, he looked at me and said, “Of course you would.”

It’s a sad but true fact that I would.  It’s also something I’m quite proud of.  I don’t see people as competition.  It doesn’t occur to me to undermine someone if I feel threatened.  It also doesn’t occur to me that people might be threatened by me.  I don’t see my skills as anything but what they are: skills.  They are not tools for someone else’s demise.  They are not to be used to make someone else look bad or fail.  If someone feels threatened by what I can do, I really have no apology to make.  It’s their issue not mine.

So I took what my husband said as a compliment.  I took it as a validation that I live a life where I can hold my head up and be proud of how I treat people.  For the most part anyway.  Put me in a locked room with a Rogers wireless CSR and it might get nasty.  I don’t treat people differently by what work they do, what education they have, or what car they drive.  I treat people by how they behave.  If you are nice, I’ll be nice.  If you try to screw me, I’ll take you down.  But if you need my help and I can give it, then of course I would.