Today I've been thinking about professionalism. I learned from my dad whose profession was accounting at one of the big three accounting firms. Some of the things he taught me have been brushed off the table for professionals today. My father and mother were expected to socialize with the other members of the firm. They were each expected to have hobbies like golf and gardening to share with the other couples they knew. I can rember my dad looking over my first effort at writing a resume and suggesting that "reading" shouldn't be the only hobby listed. I needed to add something group oriented. A quick search through resumes posted today yielded no mention of persoanl interests.

My father was never expected to yield his vacation time either. Those two weeks each August were sacrosanct. We did often vacation with other families from the firm but it was my impression that the bonding of friendship was the only business of the trip. I believe my dad was passionate about his profession. During tax season we saw very little of him in the evening or on Saturday. He poured it on during those couple of months but could be counted on to be home by 6 every other evening of the year.

As I entered the work world intent on acting the professional, I did not distinguish general white collar corporate work from "the professions" - medicine, law or accounting. In retrospect this was around the time the MBA became the ticket for white collar professionalism and my corporate employer paid for mine. In return I did what my dad had done, I respected my company and industry. Shortly I had paid back my $20K worth of tuition several times over to my employer. Imagine my suprise then when I came to work with the expectation that I could slow my career down to focus for a few years on my child.