An image of the (work) self

One of the disadvantages of working on a short term contract is that you aren't included in the company pension scheme and end up investing in dodgy companies like Equitable Life. One of the advantages is that you get to have your photo taken officially on an annual basis. What pleasure is derived then on looking back and trying to understand the decisions behind the fringe / no fringe styling issue ... the truth of course is that angst still persists.

Reflecting further there is something very familiar in these small plastic items that were handled many times a day for 12 months, yet the oldest is 19 years old. What happened to 1987-1991 I'm not certain. But what connection do I have with the person in the photos, even the name has changed? Yet these objects do remind me of who I was and what I did on a day to day for years and years, the stuff that gets lost in the dark corners of the mind as time passes by.

What value if any will these kinds of items have to future anthropologists sifting through the waste of contemporary life; maybe these still contain chemical traces, the smear of a chicken sandwich consumed on the last day of use; will there be anything to be learned in the grade of plastic that encapuslates them; what does the blue signify, is this referring to gender, or grade, employment sector or contract length; why were they issued so regularly; why did they change shape and the logo transform; why was the background colour different; why was the subject smiling on some and not on others?

Other issues we cannot anticipate will no doubt consume future generations, but will they have the same interest in such items as we have in war time identity papers, ration books or clocking in cards? By having magnetic strips on our work passes, login codes and virtual identities we will soon lose the traces of our day to day working lives and in some way life will be diminished.