Several terms illustrate the level of commitment at work: duty, vocation, passion, or even task, chore, responsibility, and so on.
Especially in education, it's so easy to do more and more in terms of availability, preparation and support for students, parents and the school... but there comes a time when you stop answering e-mails and text messages, stop working overtime and protect a few private moments. Keeping private and professional life separate becomes a prerequisite for lasting success and avoiding imbroglios. For teachers, as for many professionals, the contours of the private sphere are so tenuous that it becomes preferable to clearly announce one's limits and stick to them.
It's sometimes hard not to let our emotions get the better of us in the course of our interactions. Enthusiasm and empathy, but also jealousy, greed, vanity, aversion and prejudice, can sometimes complicate matters, especially if professional activity is spread over social networks. Establishing distance means delivering an expected professional result despite any conflicting intentions superimposed on the initial intention. Professionals gain altitude and distance, and consider the impact of their actions before making them.
This distance can sometimes be perceived as coldness, but it doesn't apply to everyone. Between professionals, it is often less so; outside professional activity, it has no place. It's more a question of a posture determined within the framework of a practice. On the contrary, in groups, we seek to establish strong links and closeness between members, which will paradoxically reinforce their professionalism as a group, since their commitment will also present itself to the group, hence the interest of team-schools and other associations of professionals.
This edition tackles the issue of professional distance from a number of angles, particularly in professions where soft skills are required.
Denys Lamontagne - [email protected]
Illustration: Mohamed Hassan - Pixabay
