Passion for Work

I've mentioned before that I'm a member of an excellent career discussion list, the Wednesday Job Group. A current discussion addresses "Passion for Work".

Following an annual career conference, the moderator asked the group to consider 3 simple questions:

1. What is passion?
2. Is work the place for passion?
3. Should people expect to have passion in their careers?

I planned to respond, but didn't get my thoughts together right away. Three days later, I found myself in a situation that inspired me to respond as follows...

I am passionate about my work but rarely about my job. I'm passionate about quality; about good, clean, maintainable code; about documentation; about technology; about uses of the web; about solving problems; about elegant solutions.

Unfortunately, I have found all too often that being passionate about my job is very risky. I can care too much. So my willingness to be passionate about my job peaks and ebbs.

In one long ago job I finally decided that I would only care about any given thing "for 10 minutes". It became a matter of some sardonic humor among my friends. If I couldn't convince others to share my passion in 10 minutes, I decided I was done. I'd even push back from the conference table and close my notebook and just listen (under "normal" situations, I take constant, nearly verbatim, notes).

The downside of passion, when others don't share that passion, can be pain.

Today I had a great example. I have a contract. It's not the world's greatest contract (see my recent weblog entry) but it's Perl code.

I was in a meeting. One of the people in the meeting has been blocking the project since I started, providing false information, promising things he never delivers. My passion got the best of me; I tried to get some straight answers from the people in the meeting. I tried to reach some solid conclusions.

I was told afterwards that my behaviour was considered "hostile" (?!)

The upshot of all this is that I will be resigning the contract. Money is good (money is very important :) but my professional self respect and personal self esteem are worth more to me than this particular paycheck. Even in the current economy.

I try not to care... it seems I can never completely give it up.

What is passion?
Passion is caring deeply about something, enough that you'll risk much in the defense of that passion.

Is work the place for passion?
Yes...

Should people expect to have passion in their careers?
Expect? No. Desire? Yes.

But as you seek passion, be sure you understand the tradeoffs. Nothing, not even passion, is free.