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Young people in the workplace - Activity sheet 1

• Activity sheet: How do you identify yourself PDF or Word

How do you identify yourself?

1. Think about how you identify yourself. What personal
attributes do you use to describe yourself?

• By gender? (I am a woman)
• By ethnicity? (I am Italian)
• By name? (I am Stanley)
• Family background? (I am half Portuguese, half French)
• By career or job title? (I am a soccer player)
• By relationship to others? (I am a friend)
• In how you think about yourself? (I am
  funny/talented/clever)

Choose ONE factor of identity you associate with yourself, and
explain why you chose it.

2. We all have identities that are significant to us;
identities that have an impact on what we think and do. This is
true at school, at home and at work.

• a. Show how one of the aspects of identity you have chosen
  can be seen in your behaviour at school.
• b. Do the same for a friend's identity.

3. At times certain aspects of our identities may seem
unimportant to us. This allows us to overlook them in others. The
flip side of this is that certain aspects of our identities may
be particularly significant to us and we may wrongly assume that
they are equally significant to, and recognised by, other
people.

• a. Decide if there is one aspect of your identity which
  people overlook or underrate in you.
• b. Do the same for a friend's identity.

4. When we feel that some aspect of our identity is under
threat, such as when we hear a negative remark about who we are
or what we think, about how we dress or what we eat, a personal
mannerism or an attitude, we tend to defend that aspect more
strongly than we might ordinarily.

• a. Nominate a time when this happened to you.
• b. Discuss how you dealt with the situation. Could you have
  handled the situation differently?

5. When you enter the workplace you may find that elements of
your identity are affirmed and valued - or you may find that
elements are challenged and threatened.

• a. How do you deal with this? Are there laws to help you?
  What are those laws?
• b. What legal rights and what legal responsibilities do you
  need to be aware of in the workplace?