Q&A: I dont get much from my job
Q: I read a lot of article about how we are supposed to find roles that align to our “passion”. And if we aren’t doing something we totally and completely love, we wont be successful. It seems like there is a lot of pressure to get into a position or company that we are totally and completely invested in. I’ve tried, and its tough to find something that is a perfect match. And honestly, I don’t mind my job and the work but i wouldn’t necessarily say it is my passion. Am i doing this wrong? Do i need to totally change my career to align to my “why”?
A: This idea has become increasingly popular over the years. Especially since the pandemic, more people had the realization life is short and they don’t want to be stuck in a cubicle for the rest of their life. Even a Gallup pole found that there has been a severe drop in employee satisfaction (albeit with a slight uptick for 2024). You are right, that there is a lot of societal pressure to find a role and work at a company that we feel makes a difference (how many tech companies claim to be “making the world a better place”). Through all of this though, we have forgotten a very simple truth…
A job is sometimes just a job.
Bills need to get paid, and we have needs far beyond what our 9-5 (or 8-4, 7-3, etc) can meet. It would be nice if we had a job that paid us well, brought us fulfillment, aligned to personal aspirations, made a positive impact on the world AND still gave us free time to explore other activities outside of the professional realm…. but that isn’t very realistic, is it? Especially since the needs of the organization far outweigh the needs of the individual employee. We might get to work on a project we are deeply passionate about, but budget constraints could very easily cancel that project. We might even get a role at a company we really connect to, but there is no guarantee we will keep that job. Job security isn’t what it used to be, and more people find themselves at the end of a layoff, even if they are a top performer.
This is why we shouldn’t put all our eggs in our professional basket. Thinking that all our fulfillment and sense of self-worth will come from our career. We need to recognize the fact we are individuals with depth beyond the surface of our professional title, and seek other sources of fulfillment elsewhere. A job can just be a vehicle that gives us the funds to pursue these other activities, and we align more of our personal time to doing so. The trick here? It is solely up to us. We need to figure out what it is that brings us this sense of satisfaction in our actions, and pursue those kinds of activities in order to get the fulfillment we expect from our careers. We can’t just hop onto a company’s mission statement and expect the work to bring us fulfillment. We need to create our own, and put in the work to make it a reality.
If you have a job that you don’t mind doing, that enables you to pursue other activities and actions? Then you’re doing it right more than most.
