What exactly is a Professional? By Angel Sturgill on Friday, June 22, 2012 at 4:50pm What is the definition of Professional? According to Wikipedia: A professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialized set of tasks and to complete them for a fee.” Hmm, interesting… because that certainly sounds like us right? Then I continued to read. “In some cultures, the term is used as shorthand to describe a particular social stratum of well educated, mostly salaried workers, who enjoy considerable work autonomy, a comfortable salary, and are commonly engaged in creative and intellectually challenging work.” Well that would knock anyone involved in the hard sciences like doctors? They follow an established set of criteria to treat patients and diagnose and solve symptoms. A mechanic does that as well right? Reading on, “Due to the personal and confidential nature of many professional services, and thus the necessity to place a great deal of trust in them, most professionals are subject to strict codes of conduct enshrining rigorous ethical and moral obligations.” Hmm, again sounds like us? We are entrusted under strict regulations and laws on how we must perform our job. Ethical and moral obligations would be one I wonder about. For example, in the process of doing our job, and a wreck occurs in front of us, are we not morally obligated to stop and help? Or are we not morally obligated to follow the law? According to Wikipedia: “A profession arises when any trade or occupation transforms itself through the development of formal qualifications based upon education, apprenticeship, and examinations, the emergence of regulatory bodies with powers to admit and discipline members, and some degree of monopoly rights.“ “Classically, there were only three : divinity, medicine, and law —the so-called learned professions. The main milestones which mark an occupation being identified as a profession are: It became a full-time occupation; The first training school was established; The first university school was established; The first local association was established; The first national association was established; The codes of professional ethics were introduced; State licensing laws were established.” Again, that sounds like us right? We can attend Vo-tech and colleges to get our certificate, then we must take a state mandated test to get our license. But then I find in Wikipedia this: “ Trades: In narrow usage, not all expertise is considered a profession. Although sometimes referred to as professions, occupations such as skilled construction and maintenance work are more generally thought of as trades or crafts. The completion of an apprenticeship is generally associated with skilled labor or trades such as carpenter, electrician, mason, painter, plumber and other similar occupations. A related distinction would be that a professional does mainly mental or administrative work, as opposed to engaging in physical work.” Interesting, because this is beginning to sound like elitism to me? And finally one golden nugget I found in Wikipedia: “ Dr. Jeff Schmidt has written that the process of professional training, while it appears to be ideologically neutral, is in fact biased towards those with superior class background and formal education, and more conservative political opinions, who are unlikely to challenge the orthodoxy of the profession. His 2000 book, Disciplined Minds is subtitled A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-Battering System that Shapes their Lives. Schmidt begins his attack on professionalism by observing that qualified professionals are less creative and diverse in their opinions and habits than non-professionals, which he attributes to the subtle indoctrination and filtering which accompanies the process of professional training. His evidence is both qualitative and quantitative, including professional examinations, industry statistics and personal accounts of trainees and professionals.” Hmmm, interesting. Is it not? Basically I have come to the understanding that anyone that requires licensing or certification to be able to do a job is a professional. Because without that license or certification which is separate from the education, you can’t do the job legally. And to top it all off, we are held legally liable for our actions. If we kill someone in the process of doing our job and are found negligent thru our actions, we can have our license taken away and even jailed. Just like doctors, lawyers, nurses, police officers and engineers. One of the reasons I looked this up is because I used to feel conflicted to say I was a truck driver. I was proud, but society oftentimes looked down on the profession. So I offer up this article and say square your shoulders, stand tall and be proud, because truck drivers are professionals!
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 06:26:03 +0000
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