Anti-Establishment Career Advice
I hate it when someone tells me, “I love my job so much, I’d do it for free.”
Right, buddy. Sure you would. There are only three kinds of people who would do their jobs for free.
The rest of us? We realize that a job is what you do for money. Please stop trying to make us feel bad about that.
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Punk Rock HR and Team Building is for Suckers by L.Ruettimann is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at punkrockhr.com.
{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
ummm….I’ve said that and I meant it. I feel fortunate and I’m well aware that I’m an exception. I don’t take it lightly at all.
I’ve heard that many times, but how about this one:
“I’d PAY to work there…”
Dreams of pro sports aside, if a company was willing to let someone do this, how long do you think it would last? Although I have seen examples of this in the past, the only ones that come to mind are scams and they probably all are.
Hi Laurie,
Long time! I had a good laugh at your example of people who would do their job for free
But I have many friends who DO (technically) work for free.
First, the extravagant artists… visual arts, authors, etc. I know many who don’t care much about the money and only do it for the art. Others work for peanuts only because this is what they LOVE to do and wouldn’t do anything else.
Secondly, people who want to make a difference in the world. I don’t know many doing this for a very long time, and there is a fine line between working and volunteering, but many “volunteer” abroad for years.
Next comes the people who want to see the world. I have many friends who have been traveling A LOT, picking random jobs on the way just to get enough money to keep traveling. Sure, they don’t do this because the love their job, but they don’t care about saving any money.
Finally, there are the tech startup whiz. I’m sure many work because they hope their company will be the next Facebook or other successful startup which will make them incredibly rich… but they take the chance to work for free from their mom’s basement for months/years and potential earn nothing for it.
I’m sure there are others as well… But I agree with you, people saying they would work for free are usually the people who don’t mean it.
@Nelking if so why don’t you do it?
I like my job and the company I work for. That being said, we share a mutually beneficial relationship based on the exchange of value for value.
congratulations on making it on CNN!!
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/01/12/cb.work.blogs/index.html
I started my company with a number of core ideas, and one was to make it an aspirational place to be. When people meet my colleagues you immediately sense that they want to be part of it.
Do I love my job, hell yeah, but I appreciate that we are unusual as an employer…tip to those who want this, be authentic and share the wealth.
Porteur Keene
YES! I think I’m in the 5-10% of people who are happiest in their jobs, but if I win Powerball–SEE YA! There are other ways I can enjoy myself, learn and grow, be productive and help humanity. I would not do it for free.
There’s no way I’d do my job for free. In my experience, feel-good jobs make you feel good, sure, but they pay miserably. And even those in glamour jobs (magazine editing, high-end luxury good marketing, etc.) are paid horribly, though the perks are many. My stance makes me depressed when looking at jobs on guru.com, odesk.com and other job bidding sites. When people overseas will almost literally work for nothing, that undercuts the rest of us who need a paycheck to stay alive, fed, clothed and sheltered. How selfish of us.
That “people don’t work for money” BS is just that…BS. It’s a leftover from some feel-good seminar from the 1980s. Greta post…and right on the…money.
At my company last week, we were all asked to say why we enjoy coming to work; I was the only one who said, “Because I get paid.” They said they wanted an honest answer, and they got one.
Okay, I’m going to rephrase this. “I like money” if I’m ever able to retire with enough of it to never have to work for it again. I still would do what I do. (but honestly I would still get paid for it and do something good with my rewards.)
So, okay, I’ll stop thinking in terms of I’d do it for free and continue to tell people I really like what I do.
I would do A job for free, it would not be in HR though. I like HR but not enough to do it for free. I would teach again for free, as long as money were not an issue. Come on lottery!
When people find out I’m a stand up, they almost always ask me to “say something funny”. My response is universally “give me some money”. I often have to explain to them that you don’t walk up to another professional and ask them to ply their trade for free.
I get paid so little I’m practically working for free. For some reason it doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I am a capitalist and practical: money is a driver…
“If its free it’s me” only apply’s to lunches and those horrible vendor paid junkets where you have to sit and listen to sales pitches to get the conference for free…Everything has a price!!!
M
This totally needed to be said.
I say we also need to call out people who:
1. Use the word “blessings” as a closing in their correspondence.
2. Can’t stop telling other people how friggin’ happy they are all the damn time.
3. Claim they’ve worked their buns off to get something when in reality it was pretty much handed to them.
@Nelking I know you like money. No need to clarify!
This is my philosophy — work is what you do for money because you won’t do it for free. That’s why I worked in HR.
@JobMob Have you ever seen baseball players at the end of a losing season? They wouldn’t do their jobs for free.
@Julien I’ve missed you! Maybe we need to redefine work & jobs?? Is art a job or a calling? I wouldn’t call being an “entrepreneur” a job, would you? International aid workers in The Congo are there because they love their work — but it’s a calling, not really a job.
@RMS I support your quid pro quo perspective.
@Lori Thanks!
@Porteur Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
@NovaJen I feel the same way about this blog. If I win the powerball — SEE YA!
@webcx How selfish of us — or how practical of us? I dunno. Work is work, and the best thing we can do to raise the value of work is to make sure that we don’t depress wages or deflate our value in the marketplace. A rising tide lifts all boats, right?
@Frank God I hate the feel-good 80s.
@Shawn I like the cut of your jib.
@Corey If you’re doing it for free, is it a job? Put on your french existential beret and get back to me.
@Jimmy I love that answer and I think it’s funny. You need to try harder to be less funny.
@RachL Work never gives you a warm & fuzzy feeling, regardless of your paycheck. That’s what the dogs are for!
@Mark I want a vendor paid junket to Maui. I’m just saying… I’ll listen to any pitch with a mai tai in my hands.
@Jenn I always assume that people are depressed when they tell me that they’re happy. I’m like, “That dude is in denial.”
Hat on – A couple defintion from google
the responsibility to do something; “it is their job to print the truth”
any long-suffering person who withstands affliction without despairing
Sounds like teaching to me
The really funny thing is that rampant unemployment among certain age cohorts is listed as a primary reason that groups of young men from certain countries/geographies join terrorist organizations – in other words, they would not be doing the job they “love” if they had a job that paid them to do something productive. Hmmm?
But on your later response, isn’t terrorits or jihadist more of a calling than a job?
It’s simple, “If you get paid, it’s a job. If it’s free, it’s a hobby.” If that were a case, my storytelling and producing skills were my hobby (wish I got paid for that).
Although for some free jobs, you get a great prize like getting on a hockey roster for one day and you have your own jersey. Oh wait…
http://ahockeyguy.blogspot.com/2008/12/brett-leonhardt-caps-web-producer.html
Blunt and hilarious, not only my two favorite things, but two of the things I value most in a person.
Thank you!! I have never understood why we don’t call this part of work out. Sure, “because I need to get paid” isn’t necessarily a good interview answer, in my view that’s a given, but why do we act as though the practicality of a paycheck is a bad thing? And I don’t even want to get into the kind of employer/employee relationship that would be formed by someone deciding one day they would just do their job for free because they love it so much. How do you fire someone like that?
I work to get paid and in exchange I make sure I’m worth what I am paid. Simple as that, end of story. That’s the expectation and the transaction between me and my employer. When birds fly out my arse, well then maybe I’ll work for free. Or ask for better insurance.
Blessings,
Jackbuilt
*snort*
@Corey Oh man, that’s exactly why I’m not a teacher.
@Middle Manager I agree. Give those terrorists a job and they’ll stop blowing shit up.
@Tracy You have a one-track hockey mind, yo!
@Cait
@Jackbuilt When birds fly out my arse, well then maybe I
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say that they love their job so much they would do it happily without compensation… I think if I ever do, I might have to fight every urge to smack them upside the head and call shenanigans on them. Haha.
- Jen
@Jackbuilt When birds fly out my arse, well then maybe I
I’m really glad you wrote this, and I agree. When people talk about how you should figure out how to get paid for doing what you love, it makes me feel really stupid because I can’t figure out how to get paid for eating and watching TV, which are 2 of favorite things to do.
Seriously, I’m happy for anyone who *loves* their job that much. But we all gotta pay the bills, and if all of us only did the work we loved, well, there’d be lots of important stuff that didn’t get done! Because no one could possibly “love” unclogging toilets so much, they’d do it for free.
I’m just sayin.
Very entertaining !