Favor Interest over Passion at Work

In my last blog I touched on feeling passion for one’s work. Specifically, I called out times that I did and did not feel passionate about past employers and past potential employers.

Along that writing process, I had some other thoughts on passion and how it relates to work. I sat with them for a bit and wanted to expand on them here:

Don’t expect passion from your employees

First and foremost, I do want to also be clear – I don’t think leaders should expect passion from their employees. Someone does not need to be passionate about the industry to be a stellar employee. Some have an incredible external motivation that will support them wherever they work. Some people specifically do not want to rely on their passions for their income because they don’t want to lose their love for their art, hobby, or other skill.

We’ve all see the memes or been asked, “Why do you want to work here?” during a job interview when the answer is truly just that someone needs a job. I’ve gotten this question a little less more recently, but I remember trying to rack my brains for something that just didn’t sound totally fake in interviews past. I didn’t have a passion for the possibility of working for a direct mail provider or the local family fun mini amusement park.

I hope this isn’t too harsh of a wakeup call, but leaders and employers need to be realistic if their product or service is even remotely exciting in the first place.

A lot of companies also provide really vague or downright boring products or solutions- things the world needs, but no one gets excited about. I interviewed at one company that among many thing, produces self checkout machines in 2020. Sure, that would have been super novel back when they were first coming out, but now it’s just another product that keeps the world moving.

Nothing screams disconnect like demanding or hoping that every applicant or team member is passionate about their jobs. But, chances are that most of your team cares about doing a decent job so they can maintain their lifestyle, and that should be all that you can reasonably hope for.

But, keep the work mentally stimulating

But, do remember that your workers are human. Chances are, they want to at least be somewhat interested in what they do. That could look like having an interest in the industry or the task at hand (or both!) Or, maybe it looks like providing opportunity for them to develop their skills in a new area.

You may wonder why I think that leaders or employers should facilitate this for their employees. The answer is always going to revolve around retention – it behooves you to keep your talent around so you don’t lose valuable institutional knowledge and have to dedicate resources to backfilling to supporting short-staffed teams.

But, there’s a broader reason too. We spend so much of our lives at work and the power imbalance is heavily weighted in favor of the employers. For the overwhelming majority of workers who are not independently wealthy and rely on their jobs to support their lifestyle, at least finding the necessary work somewhat interesting can make a huge difference in morale.

This doesn’t mean you have to entertain your staff – it’s a job after all – but you’ll keep top talent around for longer if the work is mentally stimulating.