Growing Into Your Work Skin

When adults get home from work it’s smart clothes off and comfy clothes on. For teenagers, the school uniform is endlessly comfortable. A fashion marvel that is part of their skin until it’s time to grow a new one. Before you know it they are throwing their ties in the air, writing on school shirts, getting their GCSE results and moving into higher education or employment.

You shed old skins throughout life as you grow and reinvent yourself, consciously or unconsciously becoming the real you. The work skin is one you grow into and everything that comes with it. The adult notion of working for a living can initially feel awkward like the anxiety dream of leaving the house half naked only to arrive at work in uncomfortable underwear.

The first challenge of fitting into your work skin is being comfortable with the professional you want to be versus what your CV, the labour market and society says you are. Work readiness is real and can only be developed through working. But your attitude is all you. For work, you leave your teenager swagger or your maximum volume adolescent confidence at the door. You develop your work persona to acclimatise to the world of work, combining compliance with curiosity to learn a job and show you can do more.

Work can be boring, but it’s not as boring as looking for a job and having no money or prospects. Life can make you stressed, depressed and anxious. Sometimes work causes it. Disabled people can be marginalised from work. You can be discriminated against, made to feel invisible. The UK is awaiting the final Milburn review on how to improve life chances, career paths and lifetime earnings for young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs).

A sticky label on your forehead other people can see while you find out who you are through job applications, interviews and work experience. You can fall into the trap of seeing yourself through the lens of systemic inefficiencies and action plans for improvement. You see a job, want it, but you can’t always get what you want. You are part of the problem and need to be involved in the solution. Rip off the label and write your own one about who you are, what you do and what you want to do.

If you want to know more about NEETs, read ‘Falling short of Career Guidance Benchmarks for those who need them most’ published in Metropolis Magazine (page 24). The authors Professor Lisa Russell and Dr Katherine Davey examine how today’s patchy and uneven Careers Information, Advice and Guidance falls well short of the eight Gatsby Benchmarks. A framework of guidelines used in England to deliver world-class careers education and guidance in secondary schools, colleges and training providers.

I continued with higher education to develop my mind and wow employers with my creativity. Unfortunately I missed my window and became just another graduate, smarting at the perceived unfairness of trailing behind people without university degrees, mainly because of work experience. Unlike many of my peers I did mind numbing jobs to pull myself up the career ladder. My “work suit” felt like cheap polyester that could not withstand the rain of pain.

Twenty-five years later, young people may be seen as part of the “lost generation”, suffering from the “moral failure” and “catastrophe” afflicting the country. From “we will remember them” to commemorate the young people who died in the world wars, to “look at the camera for your AI-assisted video interview” as young people wonder where all the humans went.

The Times reported the prime minister has laid out his case for the government to "invest in the success of our young people" rather than "pay for failure through the benefits system". Mental health conditions should not stop people from working. The country cannot afford it. The Guardian reported the Milburn review will recommend the government should introduce “flexi-jobs” alongside employment subsidies and intensive skills support to make it easier for disabled and chronically ill 16- to 24-year-olds to get work.

If you feel that someone stuck a “kick me” sign on the back of your work suit. You must be tired of getting your arse kicked in your search for meaning, purpose and a pay cheque. When life kicks you, you kick back. Enough is enough. The world of work must get better for young people and the rest of us. We’re in this together.

Inspiration

What we talk about when we are working and living

© 2025. All rights reserved.