To think that work should just be about doing your job well, getting paid, and having a life outside of it?

[SnugShaker]

I feel like there is a lot of pressure to be ‘passionate’ about work or to go above and beyond beyond, but for me, work is just a means to an end - doing my job well, taking the money, and then being able to enjoy my personal life. Anything else feels like unnecessary pressure. AIBU to think this is the healthiest approach?

I've always approached work that way.

But then people got mobile phones and started messaging colleagues out of hours. You've only got to look back at the thread about the mumsnetter who emailed her colleague when she was on annual leave to see what a shit storm it is. Just fucking do your job and go home.

Yes, important to have a balanced approach and good work / life balance

I have professional pride in wanting to do a good job, but no great loyalty to an employer. It's a transactional relationship, on both sides

agree 100%

I don't think being passionate and going above and beyond is incompatible with having a life outside work. We spend so much of our life working, if there's no passion it turns into drudgery.

This is my approach. I work very hard within my contracted hours, and am flexible outside of them if it's genuinely important, otherwise when I finish work I'm done. There's a million more things I'd rather be doing than working but needs must!

I used to be very passionate, always going above and beyond. Then they made loads of redundancies. I secured a job and I don’t hate it but I work very hard in contracted hours but no more than that.

Tbh I suspect a lot of people’s “passionate and above and beyond” is the same as your “work hard”

it’s mindset really. People like to feel important

Work to live, don’t live to work, is my motto.

People like to feel important

I agree with this @AquaPeer

I have a senior role in my organisation. People always say ‘we’d be lost if we didn’t have you’

Utter bollocks. I’m a bog standard accountant who could be replaced in about 3 days.

Maybe that works for you and the majority but you have to have some people who are genuinely passionate and driven or nothing would really get done.

If no one was passionate about their work and everyone just worked their hours and clocked off we wouldn’t have elite sports people or artists or business leaders. There would be no Pablo Picasso or Steve Jobs or Margaret Thatchers or Beyoncé or (pick your example).

By and large most people are towards the middle of the bell curve and that’s fine but I am uncomfortable with the idea of people saying jobs “should” be anything. Let people who are ambitious crack on if they want to and don’t try to mandate mediocrity for everyone.

This is true. You also wouldn’t have anyone to lead the people who just want to clock in and out.

It wouldn't do for me tbh. I spend far too much of my precious life there for it to be something I don't care about and look forward to being freed from. I enjoy doing my work and get a great deal of satisfaction from it. Some of my closest friends are also colleagues, and I feel a strong sense of community with them that adds to my wellbeing. If I had a job that I didn't care about, with people I didn't look forward to seeing and lived for the comparatively short periods of leisure in between, or worse still, counted the days to retirement, wishing my life away, then I would be far less happy, and in turn, less healthy. I don't kid myself I'm 'important' or indispensable. I know I'm valued though and make a positive difference to people I want to help, and that's good for my confidence and self esteem.

I think it depends on the job, some people have work that is a labour of love so the passion it not hard to find. Some jobs are very boring and repetitive so yes, it makes sense to have that perspective.

I loathe that word passionate in relation to work. I'm happy to do my work well and properly and do things outside the normal remit but more than that? I'm too old and cynical to be all jolly hockey sticks about it.

Today I passionately wish to win the lottery.

Absolutely agree with this.

That’s great that you have what suits you OP, but it’s a bit bonkers to think that would suit everyone.

For me, work is a big part of my life - yes, sometimes it is stressful and very long hours, but it fulfils me, makes me happy and I feel that I am really supporting people who find themselves in very difficult circumstances. That doesn’t mean I don’t have a fulfilled and enjoyable personal life too, but for me it doesn’t need to be one or the other and I’m happy with both.

I’ll be passionate and committed from 8-6 now and that’s it.
i stopped after the nhs became such a shit show to work for. I do my job and I leave. I am replaceable and my goodwill is not appreciated.

When I finish my shift, my work phone goes in the glove box and doesn't come out until the following day.

If I am on leave, i don't check emails or my work phone, I don't get paid enough and since they stopped allowing to WFH, I won't do anything in my own time.

I suppose if it was a job I loved, doing something I loved or was passionate about, then maybe things would be different.

Depends, if someone wants to get ahead and promoted
Sometimes people are fearful of loosing their jobs so go above and beyond

I don't even pretend to be passionate about my job when I'm there, I spend 12 hours loudly announcing the company is useless and the managers are idiots with clipboards and big egos.

I agree OP - I work to live. I am not really ambitious, just want enough money so I can spend time with my family

I agree with you, but not 100%.

I get that some people really do define themselves by their work - artists and creators and actors for example - and we tend to applaud that. So I shouldn't be judging a passionate lawyer for being the same.

Also, being passionate about your job can lead to new discoveries that benefit society - new laws, new medicines, inventions in tech or industry etc.

It depends what you want. For some people they love their work and it is more of a lifestyle choice than just work. For others it isn't.

Being a war reporter and being a till checkout person have very different requirements and hours and it is pretty mad to think when jobs are very different everyones way in which they should fit them into their lives should be the same.

You do you and don't think/criticise what everyone else is doing. That is their business.

I do a job where we (indirectly) deal with hundreds of individuals a month. Doing something not particularly important! It's also not particularly time sensitive. It's precisely why I took the role as I wanted something with zero stress.

So I always laugh to myself when I see an email, using the words "urgent" or "asap" like it really matters! 😂There's one individual who just seems to put their whole heart and soul into it. Which I could understand, if we were doing something life changing, but we're not. Obviously someone can put a lot into their work if they want to, but that person is also always stressed. Never switches off. It's not healthy.

I'd stop working tomorrow if I could. Unfortunately I can't afford to! I do enough to maintain my good reputation but no more than that. I don't hate my job, but I certainly don't love it. It's just a way of making money to do the things that I do enjoy.

I feel like I spend too much time at work to be able to be happy with ‘just a job’ that I don’t care about. I only work because they pay me but I couldn’t do a job that didn’t feel rewarding regardless of the wage.

You'd frankly be bonkers to be passionate about the sector that I work in! It's so totally unimportant in the scheme of things.

Yes I've always taken this approach. I do my job to a high standard, exchange a few niceties with my workmates, and go home.

I'm in a senior role, but don't work late, don't work on the train and don't work weekends. I don't have work emails on my phone.