To think being “passionate about your job” is just code for being exploited?

[ThatMintyCritic]

The second an employer hears you’re “passionate,” suddenly you’re working longer hours, doing unpaid extras, and burning out. AIBU to think “passion” is just code for “we can underpay you?”

Yes, if an employer thinks your a good employee they will try to exploit you. This is why I'm a big fan of the "do just enough work to not get the sack" approach..

Its a bit like when they put "must be flexible" in the job description when what they really mean is "must stay late and do unpaid overtime regularly". The flexibiity never works in the employees favour!

Yup. Sums up nursing tbh

Sums up most public sector

Disagree. I want somebody passionate working for me. Its a niche role. If you're not passionate about the subject, you'll probably find it boring. But if you are, you can be rewarded with a fullfulling job with lots of travel to unusual places, a very varied working week, and learn a lot of skills that will be useful when looking for promotion.

I think YABU.

I agree with @KrisAkabusi

I want people working for me who really care about what they do.

I do also agree that historically, there are whole sectors that are underpaid or have poor T&C because they "have a vocation" and they are the type of people who won't let down those they are supporting, and they are taken advantage of.

Yeah. Words like passionate, fast paced, flexible, self starter etc are red flags at 45 degree angles. I view with narrowed eyes.

Oh I can make out I’m very passionate about my job, I’ve had over 3 decades of perfecting it, was told in my appraisal I really live the company’s values.

Reality is, I’m there for the money and really couldn’t give a toss if the client’s implementation goes live on time.

I am passionate about what I do for work but I am SE so I suppose its a bit different
I am not exploited and I get paid pretty well

I can't take job descriptions with the word passion seriously.

What does being passionate mean to you? With my own definition, it just isn't my personality. I'm not really emotive and excitable so I am not passionate about anything. Let alone anything that is work related.

The word ‘passionate’ should be a no-no outside of the likes of romantic fiction and drama, but YABU. You can be thoroughly engaged and enjoy your job but also have good time management/discipline and have a good work life balance.

If you need your employees to be "passionate", it's because you don't adequately compensate.

You're also less likely to get competence because quiet, confident competence rarely presents as "passionate", whereas naive, bumbling incompetence can be masked by enthusiasm.

This reminds me of how teaching jobs are advertised now. Being passionate is the very least of it! One I saw recently said “clock watchers need not apply”🤣.

God knows what’s been going down at that school!

Agree. Although at my place the couple of people who use words like ‘passion’ have the reputation of talking more than delivering and being quick to push it down the chain if they get any heat for it. It’s a handy ‘wanker spotter’ tho, easy to get the measure of them quickly and take steps to avoid.

I prefer to work with the quieter diligent ones who’s ‘passions’ are a good deal more interesting than what they do for money.

I’m not a fan of the wording and cringe when companies talk about ‘the ‘company name’ family’ but…we spend most of our waking hours and most of our healthy adult lives working.

if you’re not doing something you find meaningful.. or at least isn’t destroying your soul, think about changing it if you can

Totally agree op! My adult dc are of the age where they will soon be looking for their first graduate jobs and the adverts you see are really ridiculous. They want three languages, to be able to drive, advanced tech skills, a strategist, a good people person, a team player, a willingness to travel and work “some weekends and evenings” on top of a 2.1 degree and above, all for a salary that is not much more than your minimum wage! It’s truly absurd!

And the interview process is expensive (often involving train travel, one or two nights in a hotel and can last several weeks in total!). Some are on-line to be fair but not all!

I used to be the sort of mother who encouraged their offspring to give their all and volunteer and go the extra mile but not any more; the pendulum has swung too far the other way. Half of these companies can’t even be bothered to offer a basic induction or proper training programme! Oh no they want a ”self starter” and someone with a “flexible approach” and we all know what that means; that the demands have gone up but the wages have not!

And I tend to think the same now when I hear all of this “we are a family” rehetoric whether it refers to a hospital team, firefighters, or start ups! It’s all meaningless words and a sop to paying a decent wage! The first sign of trouble, when a member of staff makes a mistake, usually because of chronic work stress and comprehensive under-resourcing, the management turn their backs and hang them out to dry! Sadly, there is very little loyalty now; as for “family” nope, not even close!

Yes. It’s an excuse to pretend that the job is vocational and to pay peanuts.

The requirement to be a “self starter” means “you are going to get fuck all training, so teach yourself quickly, or you will fail probation, after we’ve extended it once, just to shit you up”.

I once had an interview with a prestigious law firm. I got to the two-hander stage where a technical bod and their handler and some from "the business" all pile in.

The man from "the business" had a phrase that he used about five times in the interview about "this is a pie and a pint culture" and banged on about how everyone would pull together (i.e work late and weekends for free) to get the problem fixed and then go "for a pie and a pint". (personally I can't think of anything more ghastly).

I'd already decided it wasn't a good culture fit so commented that rather than relying on a "pie and a pint" they could invest in finding the systemic issues and fixing them.

IT wonks do not have great poker faces. The technical chap was visibly biting his tongue.

(I nicked that line from an interview I had where I was asked "What's the best way to see how well a company is run ?" and fluffed it horribly 😀)

In the public sector where I worked, managers lost about a third of staff due to cuts then expected the same, and then much more, output from the remaining rest of us. They constantly set us stretch objectives linked to a pay. It wasn’t fair on anyone and only some staff could give any more of their time and energy to meet these long term unrealistic expectations and so everyone suffered. The atmosphere was really bad.

Standards dropped because of rising staff turnover and there being no slack in the system to allow us to train new staff. In the end, it was mainly only people-pleasing women like me that remained. I was young enough to cope with it but as a team we burnt out one after another. The beneficiaries of what we were doing did really need help and we did passionately care about them so it was hard to walk away from them. You have to protect yourself too, though, and remember that your job doesn’t love you back. So these days it’s a massive red flag for me if ‘passion’ is on a job ad.

What could be more fun after working unpaid overtime than going out for beers with work colleagues…

Yet more of your own time wasted. We were all invited to “Friday drinks” and my boss couldn’t understand why I wasn’t going.

Well mate, something to do with an 800 mile round trip to spend a couple of hours in the pub watching you get hammered and calling everyone cunts as you get braver with each pint. Get real!!

I agree with you OP.

Same with 'self-starter', 'energetic' & 'must hit the ground running'.

Always a sign that the employer will not provide proper training and induction and is going to exploit the person as much as they can get away with.

These days it seems employers have ridiculous expectations from a potential employee but offer a low salary in return.

My ex ceo told a delightful story about how he couldn’t drive his (ha now ex) wife to hospital as he wasn’t over the limit at work drinks….he’s a massive success..just not as a human being.

I am seeing what you’re talking about at the moment op, it’s the reason I do my work to a good enough standard that questions aren’t asked about my performance but not so well that people expect me to do extra.
I always raise my workload in my 1:1, to be fair I have a high workload but am pretty much on top of it all and don’t have anything outstanding that anyone is waiting for from me.
A couple of other people I work with are openly ‘passionate’ about their jobs and yesterday one of them confided in me and said they think they get asked to do extra just because they don’t say no. They’re probably right!
I like my job, enjoy it, and love the fact that I leave it behind at the end of the day and don’t think about it until I’m due to be working again. But it’s just a job, something to keep me in a routine and busy. No more than that.