I agree with your thoughts, particularly passion being leveraged against the worker. It's not my favourite book but Work Won't Love You Back talks about this a

I agree with your thoughts, particularly passion being leveraged against the worker. It's not my favourite book but Work Won't Love You Back talks about this a bit. IMHO the problem with passion at work is that usually when companies say they value passion, they really mean that they want workers who are passionate about doing exactly what the company wants all of the time. When you're green, it's easy and feels good to believe all the BS rhetoric about how we're One Team, working together to benefit society, etc, so you channel your passion into your work. But after one spends a few years in the corporate environment, one learns how rarely a craftsman's passion aligns with the goals of a profit driven entity. I don't hold much passion for using shit tools to quickly pump out mediocre software employing user-hostile patterns that will probably be binned in a few years because someone certified as clueless decided so. The changes required to modern development to make me passionate at work are just a total nonstarter. So I withhold my passion for my personal life.