I'm going to go on another rant about another word that I have overused in the past. And now it has begun to irritate me.
"Professional."
So I'm on LinkedIn.
I really dislike LinkedIn, but I feel as though I need it. It's a place where you are typically very disingenuous and everyone else is very disingenuous because of fear. You see everyone else bragging about their accomplishments, and you yourself try to figure out how you can brag about your own accomplishments and have the bragging be received well. It reeks of desperation and insecurity and grandiosity. It's like you're competing in order to cooperate, but actually, all you really want deep down inside is simply to feel secure in the knowledge that you are going to survive and be acknowledged by both strangers and the people you care about. And that will never happen with this little game.
So both on LinkedIn and sometimes off, for many years now, I've noticed that people almost never use the word "professional" unless they're being descriptive (versus judgmental) or being a jerk. The word often isn't neutral anymore. It's like a manipulative little tool to control others' behavior through fear and shame. Because who doesn't want to appear employable in American culture? And if you are making yourself the judge of what professionalism should mean not just to you personally, but to other people as well, you are putting yourself in the dominant position. So it often becomes a power/control thing.
I would say that this is the standard, but at the same time, I have seen plenty of notable exceptions. The biggest is whenever wild, outlandish chaos is the dominant culture. In those situations, "professionalism" is often the height of compliments. I really only see this is in show business. You're around such temperamental, unpredictable, unsafe, unregulated people to such a magnified extent that it really stands out when someone is calm, polite, empathetic, rational, honest, reliable, a good listener, does their job with excellence, holds themselves accountable to standards that protect everyone from harm, etc. To me, that's what professionalism should mean.
And it doesn't now. Now, in most settings, the word is simply a clue that I'm trying to manipulate.
There's another reason why the word "professionalism" isn't a creepy word when used to compliment a performer. In most jobs in modern civilization, you're paid to suppress the sides to yourself that make you special, unique, and human. So the word "professional" just comes across as this totally un-self-aware internalized acceptance of the very worst aspects of capitalism. But this suppression of what makes one unique and human is not at all true in entertainment or performance--quite the opposite.
So if you're not in show business... maybe you should temper your use of the word "professional." I would say that the word should only be used as a compliment--not a way to try to control other people's behavior.
I'm going to try to take my own advice, but I've overused this word so often myself...
