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?
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.
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.
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.
This is basically what a psychotic would say
Sure. It’s also what anyone who’s ever hired anyone would say.
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
You seem to be laboring under several misconceptions.
Firstly, that being a parasitic middle manager is somehow undesirable. It’s natural to dislike the people who are supervising you (but building some kind of ideology around that to justify your dislike is a bit cringe). However, as they progress through their lives most people want more money, more responsibility, more challenge, and with those things comes more authority.
Secondly, that anyone complaining about “parasitic middle managers” would actually refuse the opportunity to take such a role if they were able to do so.
I’m sure that “parasitic middle managers” do exist, but one feature of capitalism (which I’m sure you also despise) is that it’s very good at weeding out people that don’t produce any value. In the vast majority of cases, the parasitic middle managers you’re talking about are in fact well experienced and highly skilled professionals, who earned the role on merit because they can produce lots of value.
It’s the same way everyone that doesn’t own a home complains about landlords, but ultimately aspires to be one.
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.