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?
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.