Cages

Categories are useful until they become cages. They become cages by becoming overly descriptive or restrictive. Job descriptions are a good example that comes to mind. How many of us have been caged by job descriptions that neither describe what we do or our place in the organization? It’s the same thing with job classes or rankings. “I’m sorry, Ruth, but you are not promotable. You are a GD23/5, to be promoted, you would have to be in the GZZ category. In the meantime, you’ll have to do your assigned GZZ duties!”
Someone had, at some point, attempted to categorize an unwieldy situation into a logical one. However, technology and diversification have rendered the system meaningless in the past forty years.

It takes significant bravery to wade in and undo years of entrenched bureaucracy. Some people feel that they have won a tournament. Any attempt to remake the system is an attempt to topple them from their place on the pyramid. The problem is that society, technology, culture, and employment are constantly changing. And the models we use to describe, circumscribe, and categorize become obsolete.

Think about that next time you run into someone who doesn’t neatly fit into racial, ethnic, or professional categories you are familiar with. It’s like when you describe someone as a folk artist, and they pointedly reject your categorization. or on the next visit to your primary care practice, the ‘provider’ is a nurse practitioner, a physician assistant, or another category of medical or nursing professional you have no experience with.

The world is changing, and the models we use to describe it or function in it are changing, too. Remember, categories are useful until they become cages that hold our minds in place without an opportunity to grow.