my only motivation to be there is to earn money and my 401k. So many of my coworkers and management feel offended by this statement.
I’m union. Union lawyer thinks this is a management strategy to try to manipulate me.
Cue BS answer for any c-suite that tries making me feel insecure over this:
well, I’m a terrible liar, that’s why I’m asking you :D
the unfriendly party might be easy: I’m always friendly and direct because I want to work. maybe that?
I won’t apologise for having a growth mindset.
I won’t apologise for having a growth mindset.
this is perfect! I’m using it
Ask them for evidence. Rather, ask your union rep to ask them for evidence.
But don’t get all “brutal honesty” on me. You can always truthfully talk about wanting to earn your paycheck or get through each day in a smooth and productive fashion.
You don’t owe them any answer: just do your job well. You’re not their dancing, singing monkey.
Ask for expectations you can deliver: actionable, constructive feedback predicated on objective facts pertinent to duties of your job. If it doesn’t fit your job description or it’s a new duty, then ask them to update the job description & offer a raise as consideration to accept the change in contract.
Why would the C suite care about you?
Become a class traitor, that might buy you a few days, maybe more if you’re really good at it
[not serious] Perhaps they should consider that they’ve failed to provide you with motivation other than money? Have they even thought of that?
I always default to “I’ll continue to do the best I can under the circumstances”, the circumstances being total organizational chaos and zero support. It’s one step short of “You fuckfaces wouldn’t piss on me if I was on fire, but I like working here marginally more than being homeless so I’ll put up with it”.
If you don’t include the explanation of what you mean by circumstances, it could be misinterpreted as not being motivated
yeah I intend it to come across that way when I say something like this
there’s not much motivation in my circumstances, and I’m tired of repeating it like a broken record, so now I say less specific things
idk if it’s a good answer or not but I am just brutally honest
I’m good at my job and I exceed expectations and my peers. if somebody has a problem with my lack of attitude on my work, well, I don’t really care, what are they gonna do, get rid of me? poor business decision
The correct response is non-verbal. You have to demonstrate that you’re motivated and friendly.
Telling coworkers that you’re only there for the money is the corporate equivalent of telling your spouse you’re only with them because your asshole isn’t going to lick itself and you don’t have any better options right now.
Everyone goes to work to make money. You’re not special in this regard. No one would go if they weren’t getting paid. The real question is why you’re doing this job to earn money instead of doing some other job to earn money.
The correct answer is, “I’ve always been passionate about <fruit bats> and I dream of one day <farming fruit bats> so I’m starting out in this job <counting fruit> because <tangential relationship> and I’m looking forward to learning all I can from you guys.”
However, you need to walk this walk, saying the things isn’t enough.
I often find myself explaining this to new team members: things go so much easier if people like you. You don’t really have to be an especially likable person, just a little empathy, and avoid being a dick. It doesn’t take much to phrase things in such a way that people actually want to help you.
No one would go if they weren’t getting paid.
I don’t know I’ve met some boot lickers that would work for free.
I’ve been in a management role for the past 3yrs. I always tell my team that I don’t expect more than the minimum stated in our job responsibilities, that I expect us to work as a team when needed, to maintain a moderate balance between their work and their lives, and to try and maintain a positive attitude.
Work sucks, so I don’t care so much about motivation, but I want my team to be happy. None of us want to be working, but none of us want to be miserable, either.
Be authentic but learn to be friendly because it helps you and those around you. From a career standpoint, I’ve seen people go far and make tons of money due to this, even if they weren’t the that intellectual or motivated.
I don’t really follow.
If you could select your own team from a large pool of employees, would you choose the person who said “I’m just here for the money and will do the bare minimum required per my role’s responsibilities”, or would you choose the person who said “I’m so passionate about whatever thing we do and I’m excited to be part of your team because I want to learn all I can from you”.
If you chose the first guy then you’re an idiot, sorry.
IDK why you’d tell that to team members honestly. It’s great that you want your team to be happy and relaxed and also great that you don’t want to take advantage of them. However, you need to balance that against helping them be the best they can be. Imagine joining a rowing team and your captain just saying “yeah so on this team we invest the minimum effort we can get away with while not sinking”.
If I looked back at the colleagues and supervisors that really received my best work and pushed me to be a little bit better than I really was … I didn’t like any of them at the time.
Depends what job its for. I really really struggle saying im passionate about sweeping floors, or that scrubbing toilets has been a dream of mine since I was a nipper.
I would assume anyone telling me that is bullshitting.
Maybe, but you could say I really wanted a job with these hours, so I looked around. I’ve always taken pride in my cleanliness and to be honest, I’m a bit fastidious, so this job seemed like the perfect fit for me.
Just find something about it to make it seem like you want this job over another job
I currently work at a bakery as essentially a barista. I don’t have any special passion for the work, but I love the idea of being a part of putting bread on so many community members’ tables. I considered switching to a cleaning job at my company and I would have the same motivation.
I don’t expect anyone to have a passion for sweeping floors and would also think they were lying if I heard that, but they can have a passion for the work the business does and want to support it any way they can.
I don’t control the hiring process and I don’t control the incoming members of my team, so don’t assume I’m an idiot. My team has excellent performance and I was able to get approval for my team to grow from 30 to 60+ people.
IDK why you assume I don’t try to encourage my team, honestly. We get good results so I reward them well. For our line of work and our company, we have greater efficiency than a majority of our counterparts in our region. If we performed poorly, I would have a different approach.
We do have people the test the boundaries, so I work with them on it and try to improve it. If nothing gets better, I have them replaced.
I’m not assuming you’re an idiot, but I’m sure you agree that team members with some aspirations are better than those who like OP, tell you they’re only there for the money.
If you could choose, you surely wouldn’t choose the latter.
Of course lol obviously I want a team member that works hard and is motivated, and ultimately polite and easy to work with. But also, people can change. Things happen in their lives that change their motivations and needs.
If they just want money, that’s fine, but I’ve seen and experienced how pushing someone who is working decently (or great, even) can cause their performance to tank if they didn’t want to be pushed in first place.
Managing large teams is less about managing their work and more about managing the people so that they can work more effectively.
Managing large teams is less about managing their work and more about managing the people so that they can work more effectively.
Well done for realizing that within three years. It’s true for smaller teams as well, but with a smaller team, it’s possible to get away with managing their work, it just won’t be nearly as effective.
Everything you’ve said here is pretty much the opposite of your initial “minimum job requirements” comment.
In many jobs that is just asking for liars to front during the job interview
Everyone lies in interviews. However, a lot of people don’t understand what will make them desirable so they lie about the wrong thing.
Someone who understands the role enough to lie to make themselves seem desirable is better than someone who doesn’t.
You really do sound cut out for middle management!
(That’s not a compliment)
LOL. You sound like you’re ripe for restructure.
Lol not beating the allegations
Lol walk more dogs.
Just fyi responding to criticism by unpromptedly referring to actual laborers derogatorily doesn’t make you seem like any less of a parasitic middle manager
Not all positions require outstanding motivation. If you are a project manager, sure a motivated one will probably outperform someone there just for the money that doesn’t give a shit. A technician on an assembly line? It doesn’t matter, you are there to operate a machine and motivation will not make you (sustantially) more productive, incentives on the other hand will (benefits, salary, less stressful working condition…)
That’s fair, but for this type of job management isn’t going to be asking you about your hopes and dreams.
Whole lot of really serious replies but I think it’d be better to spin your original statement as a joke/exaggeration/misinterpretation"
“I love my job but let’s be real - if I didn’t have bills to pay, I’d be chilling on a beach instead!”
“I love working here - but my role specifically. I’m very happy in my position and don’t see myself as CEO one day or anything.”
A while ago we had an interesting situation at work. At regular intervals our team has a call with our direct boss, for communicating how the business is going and to give little talks about out current technological challenges with our customers. At that time the results of the employee survey were published and our team had low levels on the statement “My work fills me with meaning” (not sure about the translation here). Our boss was curious about why. We had a few moments of silence until one of my senior coworkers said honestly, that at least he is not searching for his lifes meaning in work. Which is also true for me. Wasn’t a big thing after that. Our boss is totally fine with that.
That being said, one important thing for our boss (and also for me, when coaching new coworkers) is seeing, that we have at least some fun and interest in our work. If you don’t have that, then both the quality of your work and the relations to coworkers can suffer quite a bit. Then maybe doing a different job is better for you.
You can be honest about being there for getting money AND being passionate about your job (or at least part of it) at the same time. So show that to management. If they are still pissed, then they are in fact shitty. If you have other good opportunities, it might be time to head out then.
I just don’t think everyone is capable of being passionate about any job, or at least ones that are realistically achievable. Personally speaking every single thing I’m passionate about and brings me happiness are things hundreds of thousands of people do for free, so who would pay someone a living wage to do it? At my current job I’m paid incredibly well for someone that never got anything above a high school diploma (currently make around $22k-31k post taxes and deductions for insurance depending on the amount of hours I work and will get a raise soon once I finish my initial 90 days), but I just show up and do the work then go home. I don’t talk to anyone (it’s also not an environment for casual conversation considering you have to basically scream in somebody’s face for them to hear you) and spend my breaks and lunch alone reading a book.
It’s fine to be an introvert, but it is also good to cultivate an interest in what you’re doing and a care to do it right.
- Can I do this more easily?
- Does this or that affect my work? How much?
- Am I satisfied with the quality of my work?
- Are others satisfied with my work?
- Am I learning or honing any skills?
Not as the main focus perhaps but just to keep it interesting.
If I had a friend who didn’t do any of this at their work but was happy to just show up and get paid, I would wonder about their mental health, bc that is a lot of time to spend somewhere without caring about what you’re doing at all.
I’m pulling, pushing, and blowing air into cow carcaases all day. None of that really applies to me. There’s no skills to learn other than I guess how to do it faster, but there’s only so fast you can go when the line stops frequently cause somebody somewhere along it is going slow or messed something up. As long as I’m not the reason it stops then that’s all that really matters.
Best of luck brother that’s a hard job
Honestly my part is pretty damn easy. The grocery store job I had before this was at least 5x harder and paid a hell of a lot less.
I’m not defending corporate culture, and it’s bullshit. But if you’re in a job that requires thinking, not just physical labour, there is a fair amount of research that’s shows that people do significantly better work when they have intrinsic motivations than extrinsic (like money).
Even if you’re doing a job you would quite today if you didn’t need the money, there’s probably a bunch of intrinsic motivations that are there, even if they’re small compared to “need cash”. Maybe you care about your teammates and don’t want to let them down (at least that one guy, the rest are dicks), maybe you have a sense of pride in your competence and don’t want to produce shit (pity that management get in the way most of the time) , maybe you want the company do be successful (because otherwise you’d have to get naothe job).
If you find genuine motivations, even if you have to be circumspect in how you express them, it’ll be easier for your bosses to trust you. If someone is honestly and openly saying they’re only here for money, then I can infer that they will do the least possible work that won’t get them fired. So I’ll need to constantly be supervising them and checking their work because if I don’t they’ll cut corners and ruin everything. I can’t let the talk to clients or even other staff because they could be hugely negative about the company and cause problems. It’s just not worth it. From the c-suite perspective, they know that everyone saying how important work is and how much they believe in the company are full of shit.
Ask them what their motivation is if they were in your position with your pay and “benefits”
How does me working harder to gain the company more money benefit me personally in realistic terms?
How does our work benefit society as a whole?
The goal of a non government company is to make money for private shareholders, why do you think we would have other goals?Make yourself painful to lose. I get consistently ranked above my peers. What are they gonna do, fire me?
When the butchers at a single Walmart store in Texas formed a union, Walmart retaliated by firing every butcher nationwide and switching to only pre-packed meats for all stores.
They’ll put themselves through a lot to make sure the peons don’t get too uppity.
Don’t delude yourself into thinking they won’t. I had a CTO fire the whole office in a tizzy fit because one of my coworkers commented negatively and rudely about his strategy. I was literally the only person that knew anything about our core home grown CRM. Everyone can be sacrificed on the ego of the C suite.
Oh no doubt, but I have confidence in finding a new spot that (hopefully) wouldn’t have such a hostile workplace.
What are they gonna do, fire me?
Yes. Big corporations always have at least three guys with more motivation or fewer morals
Everyone is only there for the money. No one would be there if they weren’t getting paid. It sounds like you’re walking around telling all your coworkers “I’m only here for money,” which very honestly sounds insufferable. When you say the “C suite” wants to talk to you about this, are you referring to your boss, or your boss’s boss? Unless you’re in a high level job at a large company, those people are definitely not in the “C suite.”
Could be c suite at a small company. If you have a few hundred people for instance
