No, your expectations are not too high. You need to feel ok at work and if you are passionate about the type of work you do, it's reasonable to find a workplace

No, your expectations are not too high. You need to feel ok at work and if you are passionate about the type of work you do, it's reasonable to find a workplace where this sentiment is shared and going to work feels like fun. I saw a few comments in this thread which said that this is simply the way it is at a large company. I strongly disagree. I've worked full time as a software engineer both at a small company with just a handful of programmers and, currently at a large corporation with over 8000 employees. In both cases, I've been surrounded by people with a passion for software. People who share my interests. People who want to excel at their job and deliver the best possible product. If you're someone with that kind of mindset, I urge you to look for a job where that is the norm. Part of the problem may be that you currently work for, as you yourself put it, a non-software company. As others have pointed out, don't quit your job until you have a new one. If your search takes a while, or doesn't pan out, you may come to regret jumping the ship before you've found a new vessel. As a final note, let me point out that I am personally not familiar with the job market for programmers in the US. From what I've seen though, it seems like it is harsher than in Sweden.