my only motivation to be there is to earn money and my 401k. So many of my coworkers and management feel offended by this statement.
I’m union. Union lawyer thinks this is a management strategy to try to manipulate me.
Cue BS answer for any c-suite that tries making me feel insecure over this:
well, I’m a terrible liar, that’s why I’m asking you :D
the unfriendly party might be easy: I’m always friendly and direct because I want to work. maybe that?
A while ago we had an interesting situation at work. At regular intervals our team has a call with our direct boss, for communicating how the business is going and to give little talks about out current technological challenges with our customers. At that time the results of the employee survey were published and our team had low levels on the statement “My work fills me with meaning” (not sure about the translation here). Our boss was curious about why. We had a few moments of silence until one of my senior coworkers said honestly, that at least he is not searching for his lifes meaning in work. Which is also true for me. Wasn’t a big thing after that. Our boss is totally fine with that.
That being said, one important thing for our boss (and also for me, when coaching new coworkers) is seeing, that we have at least some fun and interest in our work. If you don’t have that, then both the quality of your work and the relations to coworkers can suffer quite a bit. Then maybe doing a different job is better for you.
You can be honest about being there for getting money AND being passionate about your job (or at least part of it) at the same time. So show that to management. If they are still pissed, then they are in fact shitty. If you have other good opportunities, it might be time to head out then.
I just don’t think everyone is capable of being passionate about any job, or at least ones that are realistically achievable. Personally speaking every single thing I’m passionate about and brings me happiness are things hundreds of thousands of people do for free, so who would pay someone a living wage to do it? At my current job I’m paid incredibly well for someone that never got anything above a high school diploma (currently make around $22k-31k post taxes and deductions for insurance depending on the amount of hours I work and will get a raise soon once I finish my initial 90 days), but I just show up and do the work then go home. I don’t talk to anyone (it’s also not an environment for casual conversation considering you have to basically scream in somebody’s face for them to hear you) and spend my breaks and lunch alone reading a book.
It’s fine to be an introvert, but it is also good to cultivate an interest in what you’re doing and a care to do it right.
Not as the main focus perhaps but just to keep it interesting.
If I had a friend who didn’t do any of this at their work but was happy to just show up and get paid, I would wonder about their mental health, bc that is a lot of time to spend somewhere without caring about what you’re doing at all.
I’m pulling, pushing, and blowing air into cow carcaases all day. None of that really applies to me. There’s no skills to learn other than I guess how to do it faster, but there’s only so fast you can go when the line stops frequently cause somebody somewhere along it is going slow or messed something up. As long as I’m not the reason it stops then that’s all that really matters.
Best of luck brother that’s a hard job
Honestly my part is pretty damn easy. The grocery store job I had before this was at least 5x harder and paid a hell of a lot less.