I Want to Be a Boring Accountant When I Grow Up
I don’t need to love my job. My job probably won’t love me back.
I was on a run with two friends the other day, one in medical school and one another teacher. We discussed how often we have to talk about our jobs in terms of passion and how much interviewing in our respective professions is all about talking about playing up our jobs as our lifelong passions.
Of course, passion can sometimes masquerade as an excuse to treat workers poorly and not pay them well. If a job is your passion, you’re willing to sacrifice anything for that job by definition.
This worked for me for about a couple of months of teaching, then the stress, burnout, and overall fatigue just wore on me. Life happened.
The more I thought about the “your job is your passion and you should sacrifice for it” mindset, the more I realized it was B.S.
My friend in medical school said the following to contest the pressure of your job being your passion:
“No one asks accountants if they love their jobs.”
I’d rather be complimented in dollars than words
That’s right — there’s a sense that accountants don’t necessarily love doing your taxes. They do it…
