Why doing what you love might break you
And the pitfalls of a “fulfilling career”
In the last 12–18 months, many of us have become quite introspective during the long hours spent idle or indoors — we’ve looked at our careers, our habits, and our lifestyle and thought: “is this what I really want?”.
For some this has led to a sea or tree-change, a new hobby, and also a new job (aka the Great Resignation), all in the pursuit of “doing what you love” through a “fulfilling career”.
But as someone who has been fortunate to spend their career so far doing what I “love”, I can say that diving head first into an organisation with a fulfilling cause can be more challenging than you’d like — sometimes even draining.
In this blog I’ll talk about the difficulties I faced doing what I love — I’m not discouraging anybody from pursuing their passion, just shedding light on cautionary experiences.
Diving in…
For the first 2 years of full-time work I truly loved my job — I worked for a Sydney-based mental health and wellbeing company supporting other companies in improving the welfare of their employees. My job was my passion project, my “fulfilling career”. Our product was a super app and 24-hour support centre, giving users access to ED nurses, social workers, psychologists and more through one app.
As the company grew and the pandemic rolled into 2021 we were supporting some of the largest organisations in APAC, from PwC Australia to Woolworths Group, at a time when we could see mental health and wellbeing issues were emerging in record numbers.
I’ve had my share of mental health issues through my life, as have many people close to me, so the job resonated with me on an emotional level. It was the chance to make a positive difference in peoples’ lives in a dire time of need. My colleagues and I saw it as our duty to be the best versions of ourselves at work each week to ensure that we weren’t leaving our users in the lurch.
But last month at the 2-year mark I left after making an emotionally difficult decision. In reflecting on the last 2 years, similar experiences from others, and previous fulfilling jobs, I uncovered three uncomfortable truths which I’ll dive into below.
A labour of love
HR professionals often talk about a concept called “discretionary effort”. It’s a level of productivity where employees aren’t just engaged in their work but find a higher sense of meaning, leading them to go above and beyond. This might be because the cause or organisation’s goals strongly align with their own, or because the client or user is one that employees feel strongly about (e.g. children with autism).
For many people who join startups, NGOs, charities, or other organisations with a positive “mission” this “discretionary effort” can be a constant. Whether it’s supporting mental health in the workplace or even working in the medical field supporting patients, the more passionate we feel about something the more it consumes all our energy. Nurses, for example, often go above and beyond to ensure they’ve delivered the best care shift after shift, racking up hours of overtime.
The downside might seem obvious when you’re on the outside — emotional burnout is always around the corner. When working for in a fulfilling career some people can become so emotionally invested it becomes physically and psychologically tolling.
If you’re engrossed in a cause, you can begin to neglect your own physiological needs or those of people close to you. What’s more if you work in a field that deals with some highly emotional, traumatic, or distressing circumstances (e.g. supporting suicidal ideation victims), prolonged exposure to this and a lack of understanding of how this impacts you can be tolling on your psychological health.
At my most recent company I truly believe that my colleagues and I were putting in bucket loads of discretionary effort each week because we heard about the poor psychological health of our users. As lockdowns and mental health issues grew more severe, our sense of purpose became clearer. But in my experience, this higher discretionary effort only created a self-fulfilling loop of exhaustion — greater emotional investment led to more burnout.
Emotions run hot
It’s a romantic proposition — you leave your current job where some people are polite whilst others are egotistical, and you join a team where everybody is passionate about the same thing and you’re all doing your best to upskill yourselves and those around you to achieve your mutual goal. There’s no room for ego, because teamwork makes the dream work.
But unfortunately this isn’t always the case. More often than not, because people are emotionally invested in a cause it’s not a large jump for them to lose sight of rationality. People can let their beliefs or moral compass cloud their decisions. Instead of making decisions that balance benefits to the team/organisation and the client/user, people might over-index on supporting the end user, because they are so emotionally invested. This can have harmful effects for the organisation as strategic needs are neglected.
In altruistic organisations especially (including charities or medical fields), saviourist egos are common, individuals with a “god complex” who don’t just want to be seen as radically improving the lives of others, but believe that they alone are capable of doing so. For these people, it can mean that they advocate for initiatives that are convenient or great for optics as opposed to listening to their users to get a feel for what change is really needed.
In the humanitarian sector this has been named the “white saviour industrial complex” when referring to the work of some Western charities in underprivileged regions like the African continent. For these organisations and their volunteers, the warm feeling of “saving humans’’ in the short-term is more exhilarating than slow and rational structural change that may take years or decades to bring about. As a result these altruistic organisations make little sustainable headway in driving their chosen cause.
Pinching Pennies
It’s also no surprise that for some organisations built around a passionate mission, budgets are kept lean to focus on that mission. However this can also mean that “real change” is forfeited.
When an organisation or company’s mission are laser-focused on a worthy cause, the backend functions or “admin” roles are often left neglected. In a tech company this might mean that crucial marketing resources are extremely lean in favour of product development or user-facing operations, whilst in an NGO this may see 80+% of all revenue go to building schools.
Whilst there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, it means that organisations can experience creative stagnation because not enough investment is made in finding new ways of supporting your users or clients, methods that can be more efficient or scalable.
Unfortunately it can also mean that there is little to no focus on the welfare of the people who prop up your organisation which doesn’t just lead to burnout but also high turnover, leading to a brain drain, and even more creative stagnation for the business.
When I worked as a fundraiser for the UNHCR I saw this first hand. Charities and NGOs get a bad rep for spending too much money on backend operations (e.g. marketing) but also don’t creatively use their revenue to improve the way donations are made. As a result few innovations are made to how fundraising operates, leading to fewer donations being made, leading to less revenue for the business, and so on. Eventually talented people also leave because suggestions for new ways of doing things are met with lethargy. The cycle is deadly…
So… should I just stay in an unfulfilling career??
I recognise that working in a fulfilling career is an incredible position of privilege and hope that anybody reading this gets to a stage in their career/life when they can break away from the wage-driven rat race.
But when you do follow your heart, keep in mind some of the red flags I mentioned above. There are some truly worthy causes on out there, and most organisations are worth the time and will probably make a world of difference for their chosen cause.
As in life, there will always be highs and lows but if you feel like you’re slipping into one of these lows, take a step back. Just because you love something or it’s a fulfilling career doesn’t mean you need to give 110% all the time. If it’s a well-run organisation they won’t expect you to hold up the sky for them, you’re working in a team after all. They’ll also ideally keep a rational head and stay open-minded to new ways of doing things. In short, dive right in, but make sure you’re 100% so that you can rock up to your job and give 100%!
“Kevin’s Dead” is a blog about improvement, connecting with the world, and doing away with passivity. In this blog you’ll find the musings of an Australian-Chinese millennial who is tired of being faceless and being another “Kevin”.
If you’re looking for bold opinions and a fresh Antipodean perspective, give us a follow!
