Interview Report 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Interview Report 1 - Essay Example He had migrated to the USA with an intention to seek higher education and employment. Mr. X was encouraged by his parents to go abroad and make his life there as he would be able to find more opportunities of academic and professional development. Coming from a poor family, he had to earn to fund his studies. He joined the college but couldn’t continue as the job consumed most of his time. He eventually decided to leave the studies and continue with his job. However, he did do a diploma in hotel management and has completed about two short courses on hotel management as well which led him to becoming a hotel manager from a caterer that was how he was hired in his first job. Mr. X has been serving as a hotel manager for over ten years. He is between 35 and 44 years of age. The four words or phrases said by Mr. X that describe the word â€Å"freedom† for him are â€Å"decision making power†, â€Å"work-life balance†, â€Å"money† and â€Å"peace of m ind.† Of the four, Mr. X considers work-life balance and money the most important depicters of an individual’s freedom. Mr. X has been living away from his family ever since he moved to the USA. He does not think that he is free because for all these years, he has not been able to balance his work with his social life. At one point in the interview, Mr. X said, â€Å"My life is all about work. ... In fact, his desire to make money fundamentally came from the urge to break free of the kind of lifestyle his father had spent. When asked what made him think of decision making power as a measure of freedom, Mr. X narrated the following lines of a poem: â€Å"Freedom is about blank, white paper Writing what you want to write, where you want to write Saying the things you would never normally say out loud† (Quiterio, 2002). Analysis Freedom is very difficult to define. â€Å"Freedom cannot be defined, except through an analysis of the restrictions on human action† (Cooray, 2011). Two themes in the definition of freedom narrated by Mr. X that I find most interesting are â€Å"decision making power† and â€Å"work-life balance†. To me, freedom does not mean lack of slavery. If an individual is not enslaved, he/she is not necessarily free. To be free in the real sense means to be able to make the important decisions of life. When an individual is free, he is able to adjust his work according to his wish, rather than adjusting his wishes according to his work. There are two kinds of freedom; social freedom and professional freedom. Social freedom provides an individual with the opportunity to do whatever he wants. People who have a large degree of social freedom are generally very rich. They have more than enough money to satisfy their needs. They may do a job, but job is not really their need. Many people with a high degree of social freedom do job to kill time rather than to earn money. People who have professional freedom have high position and authority. They are leaders or managers. While they make others do very hard work, their own work life is quite balanced with their social life. Mr. X talked a lot about the lack of work-life balance in his life.