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It has always seemed to me that "I love that I get paid to do what I'm passionate about!" is in most (clearly not all) instances either a form of sweet lemon ra
by Iftheshoefits 12y ago
It has always seemed to me that "I love that I get paid to do what I'm passionate about!" is in most (clearly not all) instances either a form of sweet lemon rationalization or else a kind of expression of stockholm syndrome.
That I am passionate about something does not imply I ought to be compensated less for it than I otherwise might be and, no, providing a space merely for me to do what I like is not "compensation." Employers love that there are so many people for whom "money is a poor motivator." It assists them in keeping the imbalance that exists stable (or growing).
Also, that paradox really only applies broadly to a very special kind of person, and generally only to people who are in professions for which a substantial minimum income is the general rule. I also suspect it's only true for a certain range (e.g. an additional 5-15% might not be of interest, but start talking about 20% or more of an increase and that gets to be another discussion altogether).
- djur 12y agoI love doing my job, and in a Star Trek-style socialist paradise I'd gladly do the same job even without differential compensation versus other options. That said, as a class-conscious worker in a capitalist system, I would never accept job satisfaction in lieu of fair pay. I did take a pay cut for a while to work at a startup, but that was a choice I made based on the expectation that once the financial situation changed the founders would do right by me (and it did, and they did).
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoSomebody said to me in graduate school "You take the best offer you get, somebody else is determining your future." She took the job she wanted. What's wrong with that? It's not all about the money.
- djur 12y agoThere's a big difference between only taking the best offer (by which I assume you mean most lucrative) and only taking offers that are adequately compensated for the work performed. There's lots of employers that take advantage of their employees' desire to do good in the world in order to shortchange them.
- Iftheshoefits 12y ago"You take the best offer you get, somebody else is determining your future" generalizes: "You take any offer (of employment), somebody else is determining your future." Both are fairly vacuous tautologies.
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoBe as cynical as you like. But its still possible to keep looking until you find something that fits your priorities instead of signing up for the first big bank that makes a big offer.
- analog31 12y agoI would say instead, if you take the best offer, somebody else is determining your past. That's because the salary you receive becomes your past when you use it to negotiate the next offer.