Uh, well, yes, this may be true of the richest CEOs of exceptionally large companies. It obviously is mathematically impossible that this could be true of the vast, vast majority of business owners and CEOs, since of course the vast majority of companies just aren’t that big.
If the CEO of my company made a thousand times my salary the company would go bankrupt in two months.
I’ve never loved going to work: ever. I’d much rather stay in bed and sleep. I can’t imagine any job that I would actually like. I’m not wired that way.
I got a similar line of BS when I was teaching at a small evangelical college that was having a hard time making ends meet. Plus we got the extra guilt trip that we were doing the Lord’s work.
I think a good response for a public school teacher would be, “This is a question that needs to be asked not just of us teachers, but of the county taxpayers whose children and grandchildren I’m teaching. I expect them to be here for the kids, by being willing to pay enough in property taxes to hire and keep talented and motivated teachers like me, and not dump a whole bunch of unrelated stuff on us to make our jobs harder and make us burn out that much faster. If they hold up their end, then I can hold up mine. But if the parents and grandparents of these kids aren’t willing to be here for the kids rather than themselves when the county sets the property tax rates, then they have no business expecting us teachers to make up their deficiency, and neither do you.”
What if you created your own company and did what you love to do, whatever that is (mattress testing? Pillow commercials? be creative!) 
I happen to really enjoy what I do (not sure if I “love” it but my job is pretty much a constant adventure that pays well), so I can relate to the whole “LWYD” thing. It’s a noble goal but pretty unrealistic on a societal scale. Few people are going to feel passionate about working in HR or stamping body panels in a car factory or working retail, but someone has to do those jobs. If they all quit their jobs to open a brewery or bakery or become a professional snowboarder, we’d be in trouble.
^^ and yet, there are ppl who have a Zen attitude about their mundane (to our way of thinking) jobs. They just do it because they love their cow-orkers or love being useful or love taking care of their families. Or love making BMWs.
There’s nothing, absolutely nothing that would make me WANT to get out of bed in the morning. Nothing. I hate work. I hate responsibility. I’m not kidding.
Doesn’t anyone else feel this way?
I know exactly how you feel.
Oh, there are days that aren’t bad. But in general, I hate to have to do anything.
My response to that article could be summed up as “If work didn’t suck, they wouldn’t have to pay people to do it.”
Sorry, the CEOs on average make only :rolleyes: 204 times what the average worker does. Here’s an article about it from Bloomberg. I think my basic point still stands.
I spent more time than I care to think “following my passion.” It seems like a completely absurd idea to me that someone should pay you money so you can feel good; people give you a wage or pay you so they can have what they want.
“Calvin, go do something you hate! Being miserable builds character!”
I’m all for loving what you do!
What I don’t see is how that’s got to be at work. Not necessarily. Some people’s vocation is work-related, some people’s isn’t, so long as you have an attitude of “I do good work because it’s me doing it” you’re my favorite coworker.
I think you guys are focusing too much on field, and not enough on process. Not everyone is going to work in their dream field, but most of us can find a few business processes that we enjoy. You may like working with people, or seeing a project through beginning to end, or conducting research and writing. You may prefer a larger business with more established was doing things, or a smaller, more innovative company. These things make a difference.
Well it’s not going to work for everyone, I do think that seeking out work that you find fulfilling and meaningful is a reasonable thing to shoot for. And I think it’s important to take a very long view. Although you may not doing exactly what you want, I think it usually is possible she works jobs that will eventually lead up to your goals.
That kind of response makes sense in, say, a public board meeting, where people are deciding policy. It doesn’t work in a faculty meeting, where basically your boss is telling you what to do. You’re going to do what they say, because they are the boss, even if that means you feel like you are less effective than you’d be otherwise. In that respect, it’s no different from any other job and any other pointy-haired boss. The difference in teaching is that they use “Who are you here for, really?” on minor matters as a way to make people feel shitty about themselves. People who aren’t eagerly relishing filling out the new, improved TPS reports are selfish children-haters who are only in this for the money.
Enjoy and love are two completely different things. I enjoy traveling, I love analyzing processes and improving processes and test design, I hate having to do things “because I say so” and I loathe not being allowed to charge double when people whine that the system is behaving exactly how they insisted it had to behave (despite protests from the whole team). Whether I love, enjoy or hate a particular job will depend on how much each of the previous elements are present; I do jump ship when things are bad enough but hey, it’s because I can afford to!
Having a few things they enjoy can’t make someone love their job; at most, it would make them “mildly enjoy their job”.
Something my dad used to say:
“Work’s not supposed to be fun; that’s why they pay you.”
It shouldn’t be sheer misery, but the purpose of work is to collect money that you can use to meet your financial needs/obligations. First question in choosing a job/career should be, “is this going to earn enough money to pay the bills?” Then you can optimize happiness, subject to the earning-enough-money constraint.
Is there something you really like to do that doesn’t pay well? For example, intensive study of WW2-era European history, or theatre acting? Take it up as a hobby. Go to your not-miserable day job, earn a living, and then come home and spend a couple of evening hours with the local Shakespeare group.
If everyone had to love what they did for a living, then we wouldn’t have anybody picking up partially-decomposed roadkill, or cleaning out septic tanks, or mopping up vomit in the hospital. Hopefully the people who do those jobs don’t hate it (they’re fine occupations for people afflicted with anosmia) but I can’t imagine anyone loving those tasks.
I think its started as motivational filler, but somehow corporate officers drank the Kool-Aid and now its considered something to benchmark. Its a way to pressure more out of the already over-burdened without adding costs to an income statement and as such, becomes completely and totally worthless. Worse, it becomes a deceptive cynical nasty jeering jab at any actual dreams held by the working class (or the trying to be working class) in the same vein as “get a job”.
I’d Love to write a reply:
“Do What You Love. Love What You Do” is a beautiful thought, a beautiful Dream. Its something to aspire to; its a goal. And if I see my family less and work longer hours at no additional cost to you, boss, wow.
Its like I can’t even feel your hand in my pocket… stealing from me.
Boss, I’m here on business, and our business isn’t the Dreams and Love business, no matter how hard you keep trying to bend me over. Our business is in the “Pay What You Owe. Pay it On-time. Pay it Regularly or better yet pay it NOW…” business.
I provide my labor with open eyes as a business decision, for a set amount of time, providing a set of skills and at a set rate of pay. I do this because maintaining my family is a business too.
Given a bad business decision, you can lose your company, but if I make a bad business decision, everything that I have and everyone that I love will be taken away. My kids? The State. You’ll end up paying for that in taxes.
My home? The Bank. Given bail outs, you’ll probably end up paying for that too. Payments, premiums, registrations, license fees, tuition costs, and other assorted monthly bills arrive in my mailbox daily too. They will be there every day
and for the very rest of my life and they are my responsibility, my obligation, and my Word.
“My Passion is keeping my Word and paying my bills on time. What part of what you are proposing helps me do that more easily? This… Passion… just how much more are you willing to pay for it? If this is a salary renegotiation,
I’ll get my spreadsheets and you can reserve a conference room… just as long as you understand that if we don’t come to an agreement, the old contract is still in effect until you decide to end it.”
I feel similarly. The times I have not worked, I have not gotten out of bed. I wouldn’t do so if I didn’t have to. But I love what I do, so I’m grateful I did get out of bed, and haven’t slept my life away.
I have to force myself to be employed by the system (rather than just writing a novel or focusing solely on my business or whatever), because otherwise I would become inert.
Good point. There are three types of happiness (I see that it’s been expanded to five, but whatever).
One is the pureness of working. “Engagement.” Of being in the zone. You don’t have to get that from employment, you can get that from hobbies or projects, but if you have a job that lets you envelop yourself in pleasurable work, so much the better.
Another is Meaning, which is what I think some of us are also demanding from our employment. Again, if you can get that through work, so much the better.
I’ll go all woo and say we might not all seek these avenues of happiness in the same amounts. Pleasure-seekers might freak out at the idea of a “grind” at work, but Engagement-seekers thrive. Meaning-seekers might hate the corporate world, but someone who wants relationships might be a great account manager or salesman.
I completely disagree. I’ve had jobs I love where a component is mopping up vomit. And urine. And blood. It’s not the task, which is not that gross, really, but the purpose behind it.
Then there was that thread way back about the guy who wanted to stay high all the time and yet pay for his habit, so he had a job harvesting moss in the forest. Backbreaking, tedious work, but he loved it because it fulfilled his goal in life.
Maybe people who are unhappy at work are just have Stockholm Syndrome. Isn’t that the OP? Suppressing people so they won’t think they deserve better than to do what they’re told and shouldn’t they be grateful for the money?
I think that’s worth considering, but I don’t totally agree.
For one thing, part of the point of “do what you love” is that if you’re doing what you love, you’ll be naturally motivated to work harder, to put in more time and effort and creativity, and that hard work is conducive to success.
For another thing, I think “do what you love” can apply to at least some extent even to low-status, low-class jobs; it still helps to have a job that you’re a good fit for. Working with and serving the public (as a fast food counter person, for example) is going to be closer to a work of love for some sorts of people than for others.
One similar piece of advice I have heard is from Frederick Buechner: “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” I think this recognizes the value of work both for the worker and for the “marketplace” or rest of the world for whose benefit the work is done.
I regularly joke that I need a job that would pay me to sleep until 11, never change out of my pj’s, and make snarky comments about things people love.