I still love technology, technical challenges and clever hacking. But 95% of real world work is not that. 95% of work is fairly boring plumbing or translating of requirements into something that will make money for the company.

And that's not some terrible thing. Like you said, a job is something you do for money. If it weren't, it would be a hobby.

Having people be passionate about the work they do is a great way to lower the wages and working conditions. Look at gamedev, or other sectors people are passionate about. Because so many people want to build games, they are considered expendable/replaceable and are treated poorly, both in terms of wages, working hours, and other labour conditions. The same thing applies to FAANG companies to some extent - they just "burn up" young talent by motivating them to spend as much time crunching in the office as possible.

Legislating another person's emotions is entirely intrusive, invasive, and overbearing, and frankly, psychotic. It would be nice if companies stopped using the word "passionate" in job postings. It's creepy and weird and makes them look like they're not serious about their work.

> Legislating another person's emotions is entirely intrusive, invasive, and overbearing, and frankly, psychotic.

...well, that explains its popularity in the corporate world then. rimshot

I've been on both sides of this. Generally I am "passionate" about my work. I spend half my waking time doing it so I better have fun.

I've managed equally passionate teams. All I'd have to say most times is, "We gotta get this done." And somebody would jump up and say they would do it, because they saw the value of learning it, the value to the team, the value to the organization, or all three.

The last two places I have worked (A non-profit and a mission-based Linux company) have been completely different. Almost everybody was passionate only about keeping a roof over their heads (if that). It is a source of constant chuckles that I found more passion in a second tier ad-tech company than I do in mission-driven organizations.

I think companies have earned this though because of exactly what others have said in this thread. Companies have taken advantage of passion so that now. Say what you will about the ad-tech company they did retreats all around the world, gave us interesting swag and threw incredible parties. The mission driven organizations are like "Do it because you belieeeeeve."

[edited to remove nonsense]