3 ms·
I've been meaning to write a blog post about the "level of purpose" in a job: At level 3, the best level: The company is curing children's cancer or something
by Buttons840 1y ago
I've been meaning to write a blog post about the "level of purpose" in a job:
At level 3, the best level: The company is curing children's cancer or something else that you are personally motivated to do and satisfied by. The work is something you would do without pay (though you might not have as much time to do it if you weren't paid). Your highest purpose is to cure children's cancer.
At level 2: The company is doing work you are not personally interested in, but you work with good people doing good work. The company and people support each other and build a profitable product. Your highest purpose is to make the company profitable.
At level 1: The company starts doing stupid shit and acting in self-destructive ways. The company is run by managers who care more about growing their own headcounts than the overall profitability of the company. Your highest purpose is to make your manager happy.
At level 0: Your manager is also doing bad things. At this level the only purpose the job fulfills is giving you money, and there's no reason to not go full psychopath and do whatever it takes to maximize the amount of money you get. Your highest purpose is to make money without doing anything too illegal and avoid trouble.
What level is your job at?
Level 3 is rare and always will be, that's okay.
Level 2 is good, and I sometimes hear people on HN offering level 2 as the correct attitude to have towards work. But we need to recognize that workers are often asked to do stupid or semi-dishonest things that are not profitable for the company.
Level 1 and 0 are stages of hell, and it's sad how common they are.
- roarcher 1y agoI think there are actually two separate axes here, one for the meaningfulness of the job, and one for the behavior of management. There are lots of companies where the work is personally fulfilling (level 3) but the bosses are in it for themselves (level 1 or 0). From what I've heard, SpaceX would fall in this category for me, as would many non-profits.
- Buttons840 1y agoThat's an interesting model, but I see it different: one axis is a prerequisite for the other axis--they aren't separate. The company as a whole might serve a noble purpose, but your purpose as an employee will have no connection to that if you're just redesigning the coversheet for TPS reports.
- ralferoo 1y agoI agree with the other guy. Sure, many cases they seem to be correlated, but the other cases happen frequently enough to show they're independent.