Guidebook. p2
3) Code Switching
If you work in an environment where you are in the minority, you will need to learn the mainstream lingo in order to get your ideas and contributions at work taken seriously. This is something you probably already do, learned in school and elsewhere.
It’s likely that you will be expected to communicate in a more formal tone in general, especially in writing. Besides the truth is – a lot of the time the people you work with will not understand your vernacular or jokes. So I learned how to speak for my audience to build my social capital at work. You will need to observe and learn your audience. I try to make sports references in order to communicate strategies or plans. I got more familiar with 80’s rock songs because those are the songs “everyone” knows.
There will be people who joke around and speak more loosely. Don’t take that as a sign that you will be allowed the same privilege. You can relax around friends, but in the workplace, talking how you would normally could be cause you be perceived as unsophisticated or even stupid, even if you shouldn’t be.
So what if I fucking said “take out the light” leaving the office you say?
You still got what I was saying?
Yeah, well now your coworker is thinking you don’t understand basic grammar due to English being your second language and growing up with your immigrant parents with broken English who never taught you the proper way to say “turn off the light” and that’s probably why they hired you, you token.
Yes, it is really like that. Is everyone you work with going to think that? Of course not. Or, I hope not, depends on your situation. This is just how implicit bias might work. On the bright side though, when you do come around someone you connect to culturally, you can code switch and appreciate the company so much more. Mabuhay!
4) Knowing your resources and that weird feeling of not being that poor anymore
Learn how to budget AND SAVE. This is something that most people will agree with, but for me I felt needed some serious self-teaching.
I grew up poor. A lot of financial advice relies on the premise that you already have money. When you are poor, everything is more expensive. I grew up in a household constantly juggling how we spent money and paid bills to keep the light on, the water on, avoid eviction, and fill the car with gas simultaneously. Money management when you never have enough money is a distinct skill.
So, when I started making a salary, I didn’t the have a lot of examples of what to do with money other than spend it when you have it. Most of my family don’t have benefits. I still feel shy looking about my health benefit plan and not knowing a PPO from an HMO from an IOU.
My advice is to ask questions. Read books. Watch a Youtube tutorial. I read “I Will Teach You to be Rich.” By Ramit Sethi. I subscribe to a blog called MyFinanceGirl. All of this stuff is confusing, but there are people who are good at it. Don’t be ashamed to look for help.
If you have coworkers/friends from higher income families, they may not understand. You’ll feel especially poor talking to them, even though now, you may not be poor anymore.
I remember my first year having dental insurance I was having lunch with a friend and found out he also never had dental insurance before. We were going to the dentist like every other week for all the deferred maintenance in our mouths. It was glorious to relate. I felt like I wasn’t alone, and there are definitely other people who are going through this sort of experience too.
Know what resources you have. Use them. If you work in public service, use the 10-year debt forgiveness program to pay for your college bills. Maybe you don’t have family to fall back on. You need to prepare for emergencies and save, because you need to save yourself. You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else. But if a family emergency does happen, now you have become someone that they fall back on. So, save for you, and save because even if they don’t say it, they need you too. This pressure and loneliness a lot of students on the UC Blue and Gold Plan who shared their financial aid money with their families know very well.
Hopefully though, you’ll experience the relief seeing that you are in a place where your can afford to help your mom’s emergency car repair or a trip to the doctor when you’re sick.
