At my last place of work, we sold BBQs, the big flashy kind. My boss was of the mind that demonstrations sold product, so it was my job to use working models of these BBQs four days a week. We had up to four BBQs running on each of these days, all using large amounts of meat to show off the different ways they cooked. At the end of these days I would end up with enough food to feed a couple large families, so needless to say, a fair amount came home with me. There would always be quite a bit more than I could (healthily at least) ever eat, so I would often gift leftovers to friends who may not have had as much, or any local rough sleepers (I was living in Linwood, then the city center at the time). These meals were absolutely as delicious as they were unhealthy (smoked pulled pork, rubbed and spiced chicken, sausages etc), and I could not in good conscience see them put in a bin.
Kindness in this manner is not necessarily a virtue, and it should not be unexpected. Doing unto others is to me something we all practice at times, whether knowing so or not, and distributing excess should be something we all do. It appears to be in our nature to allow small kindnesses to those who are in need, or are in close proximity at least.
This ties into values I hold dear pretty well. Given that we all will happily gift our small excess to others around us (friends, family, even strangers), it seems only natural to expand on that impulse on a societal level.
I don't really have an easily defined cultural background. We moved around a lot when I was a child, not an environment for setting down roots. However I would say the social scenes I was a part of as a teenager were a big influence, as well as the music scene that I am in now. Both imparted the lessons that "friends are the family you can choose", and provided the opportunity to learn from a lot of unique people and viewpoints (mostly feelie, left, socialist stuff, but I have been told that I will grow out of that one day, so no fear).
Identity to me is something morphable, nebulous in it's resistance for hard definition. I don't think of myself as one person, rather a collection of concepts and influences loosely held together in a wobbly jelly. I feel as if I were a sort of dream caught inside of a person shaped trap, and it is important to me to think of other people the same way. None of us chose to exist. We all suffer in these flesh prisons, and the idea that we would judge someone else based on what they choose to do with their meat suit, or what type of organic vessel they are attracted to, is just bizarre to me.
I have a dramatic sounding list of ailments that cause me significant discomfort (Multiple Sclerosis, ADHD, depression, general anxiety disorder), and I assume that everyone is probably about as uncomfortable, whether they say so or not. Empathy is bred from shared suffering, and so I try to interact with people from the "no-one does something for no reason" point of view.
A robust and easy sense of humour is important to me, social situations have never been too difficult as long as I can make dumb jokes. Listening to other peoples stories and experiences is also something I value, everyone loves talking about themselves. I have a strong background in sales, and I was extremely good at it, so finding out what you want and how to sell it to you is a strategy that has worked well for me, and I'm sure will be helpful in team project scenarios.
Who doesn't love abstract problem solving? Creativity and technical knowledge wrapped up in a bow, sign me up. During employment, and in my life in general, I have often needed to solve odd technical or logistic problems across a wide range of types, I am confident in my ability to pick most things up quickly and parse new information in solutions.
In the past I have definitely been over confident in my ability to pull solutions out at the last minute (admittedly from good past results, but a very bad habit). I was recently diagnosed with ADHD, so I have learned I am not a bad person, merely looking for stimuslation in all the wrong places. Memory and motivation are skills I am now medicated for and actively working on improving, though they are still barriers.
In my last job, in my last year, in order to ostensibly lessen my workload, we hired a new employee. Unfortunately, the new employees attitude was pretty poor, so it was an uphill battle to get anything done. I made sure to always approach this with patience and understanding however, as it turned out there were extenuating circumstances in this persons life, and yelling about things not being done was not going to help, and my patience paid off in the end, when the employee ended up being a productive member of the team.
I think this strategy was effective, and I would repeat it given the opportunity. Empathy and patience are always effective strategies when dealing with resistance or tension in the workplace.