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Why You Don't Need to Love Your Job

June 2, 2010 RSS Feed Print

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Karen Burns

You hear it all the time--doing what you love, what you are passionate about, is the one true path to career bliss. Many experts go a step further, promising wealth and success, too.

But is this really true? Maybe you don’t yet know what you love. Maybe you know what you love but can’t find work doing it. Maybe what you love—designing clothes, teaching kindergarten, baking cakes, writing novels, playing basketball—is not lucrative enough, and will likely never be lucrative enough, to support you.

[See 15 essentials to getting hired.]

Let’s float a concept that is almost heretical in the career advice biz: Work as a means to an end (paying your mortgage, raising your kids) is just as legitimate and just as respectable as work that feeds your inner passion.

In fact, most people who merely like, rather than love, their jobs are leading happy and fulfilled lives. Yes, you can get satisfaction and even pride out of doing a decent job well and competently. You can find enjoyment in facets of your work—your colleagues, your geographical location, your schedule—not strictly central to the job but still very important. And you can feed your inner passions in ways other than on the job.

[See how to take risks in your career.]

This does not mean that if you’re miserable at work you just need to suck it up. Hating your job, dreading the hours you spend there, counting the minutes till the end of the day, can poison the non-work portion of your life and even take a toll on your health. If you do truly despise your job, if it is sucking your life force, take steps now to find some new way of earning a living.

The point under consideration here is that there is nothing wrong with you if you don’t feel a passionate love for your job. Think about this: Maybe the insistence that it’s essential to adore your job is more distressing and depressing than working at a job that is just OK. If you are young or starting out, being told you have to hold out for that ideal job can add unnecessary pressure, not to mention delay, to an already stressful process. If you are unable to make any move for fear your choice will be less than perfect, then maybe the “you must love your job” credo is standing in your way instead of pointing you in the right direction.

[See the new rules for today's job hunt.]

A good thing to remember no matter where you are in your work life is that every job is temporary. Moreover, it’s not necessary or even possible to be thrilled with what you’re doing every single minute of every single day. And you know what? The OK job you may have right now has a good chance of leading to work you like much much better, once you're farther along the road of life.

Meanwhile, cut yourself some slack. Enjoy the process. Do good work. Learn what you can learn. Give yourself some time to evolve into your ultimate career, which may turn out to be something you can’t even visualize today. And which you may even “love.”

Karen Burns is the author of the illustrated career advice book The Amazing Adventures of Working Girl: Real-Life Career Advice You Can Actually Use, recently released by Running Press. She blogs at www.karenburnsworkinggirl.com.

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Reading this article when I've just transited from university to worklife is a relief, especially when I've been questioning myself on why I can't get the ideal job I'm looking for.
I've just started work for a week and realize I couldn't get used to the environment at the organization. Having being offered another appointment at yet another organization, I've decided to choose the latter, because I just couldn't see myself enduring there long-term.
Anyway, my point is that work environment can be especially important when you don't love what you do. If you have supportive colleagues and boss around, you can always get by your days somehow.
I mean, if there's no way you can get out of that job.

Mich 7:02AM May 24, 2011

My sentiments exactly. I worked for a career information publisher founded by two impossibly naive guidance counsellors for a while, and they really pushed this idea to their high-school audience that there is that perfect job out there for you, and you just have to find it, and the CEO one time implied that people change majors or careers because they need a service like ours to inform them about what their perfect niche is. I thought it was a crock - most jobs aren't that great, but somebody has to do them. I also think corporations are pushing this ideology - you're not a good employee if you don't have mega-high levels of engagement and passion - the whole "giving 110%" thing. I'm a librarian and I really enjoy my job, but I have, as you say, things that I'm much more passionate about that I could never make a living at - travel, wine-tasting, history, my baby son. Not only that, but I might not enjoy these things nearly as much if I had to do them for a living. I love my son, but it doesn't follow that I would be happy running a day care. I love wine, but having worked part-time in a wine shop, I appreciate that much of the business is a grind.

Heather 6:07PM April 21, 2011

Admirable!
I always tell my husband who is a teacher to look at the positive things of being in that profession rather than whining all these negative stuff he absorbed after work.
The guidance he gives and some spiritual formation he provides to the kids are amazing but when he feels he could not control his classroom, he feels everything is failing.
I have this perspective on how God view things, I must say all the time, I dont see the imperfections on people but only the positiveness. I hope he could get that attribute from me as his lifetime partner.
Last week, after he attended a workshop that would help him alleviate the anxiety, he feels that it is what inside and not on the outside things he usually sees. He said he would try his best but the moment he steps in the classroom, negativeness comes his way.
I do pray God will show him the way.

Tappy of FL 2:59PM November 18, 2010