What is the meaning of "Professionalism"?

"Professionalism"; The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines professionalism as "the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person"; and it defines a profession as "a calling requiring specialized knowledge and often long and intensive academic preparation.". This is the definition of the word professionalism in one of the truest forms. This is certain that you would also stick to the fact that is a well-defined statement. But is this the only way in which professionalism can be defined?

If we dig a bit into the past of this word, it was coined in the mid-1880s and has been derived from another related word "professional" traces of which could be found in the mid-1770s. Since then till today this word has undergone several mutations and paradigm shifts to obtain the form we use it today. We relate characteristics like formal appearance, punctuality, competency, ethics, poise, etc as the core attributes of being a professional. It is a very prevalent thought that people with tattoos, in casual attire, dyed hair, etc are regarded as beyond the pale in the realm of professionalism and they find it hard to readily have people around who want to work with them.

I believe corporate culture has been built on domination to make people work, look, walk, and talk in a certain pre-defined manner to make everyone looks alike. They feel that by doing so they will be able to maintain a sense of uniformity in the workplace. There has been adversarial amongst people since ever for this kind of uniformity as it forbids people from being their truest selves. Even for us whenever we are asked to pretend to be someone we are not for long it is agonizing.

Although today there are estimable organizations that are breaking such walls and are opening doors for people irrespective of their style choices to set an example for the world. Still, this shift needs more years to make a change in the mindset of people as human nature is reluctant to change but if we talk about whether or not these practices should be acceptable I would vouch for these parameters to judge whether a person is professional or not are just prejudicial practices. Employers should be perspicacious in analyzing candidates and be more focused on the knowledge rather than on people's physiognomy. As every person carries their proficiency and brings with them distinguished achievements and strengths that can benefit the organization in an unparalleled manner (if given a chance).

"COMPANIES SHOULD START HIRING PEOPLE FOR WHO THEY ARE"

Hence workplaces should start welcoming people as distinctive human beings rather than dead-ringer for others at work. Discreteness will let everyone be in their distinct self yet work together with uniformity reflecting in the target achievements of the company irrespective of how one looks like or what they wear to work.

-Shreya Rastogi