On Workplace Motivation

Will it though???

I’ve been struggling to understand something for a while: motivation. Specifically the origin of other people’s motivation at the workplace – not just to do a great job (which I also feel), but motivation to work themselves to the bone at the detriment of their health and family for their job without prompting. This isn’t a requirement for them, but they do it anyway. I seriously don’t understand it.

My team has a new member – a single mom with two teenagers that started a month ago. She has been routinely working from 6am to 2am every day unnecessarily – answering emails from clients at all hours and understandably trying to prove her worth. I must admit I have also in the past answered client emails at all hours – if I’m already awake and the client doesn’t take advantage. I also understand wanting to prove your worth the first few months and having that be your main priority before you go back to more evenly balancing your work and home life.

I’ve always been more about working smart than working hard. In fact in school I would feel guilt after a project thinking “I could have done more” despite the A+ staring me in the face. I knew I could have done more, slept less and did even better (despite a grade for that not existing), but I didn’t. I came to think of myself as kind of lazy in this regard, but every time I mention this to someone they tell me examples of how I’ve tried harder than they’ve ever seen before. I seem to either not perceive myself correctly or know that I could have done better. I do well enough to make the grade, make the client happy and finish the project well….but I can always do better. I choose not to. I choose to spend time with my partner and cook healthy meals and have a life outside of work.

Other people I have worked with – specifically in NYC – do not have that balance. Seemingly on purpose. In trying to figure out their motivation for working 24/7 and expecting others to do the same one possibility I thought of is bolstering their identity. If someone’s entire identity is wrapped up in what they do (“I’m a lawyer” instead of I practice law for example) I can kind of understand giving it absolutely everything you have, but that doesn’t seem very healthy or sustainable to me. I could be wrong, but I burn out fairly easily. It might be because I’m working with people all day (luckily through a phone now that I work from home) and am a serious introvert. It could be because I don’t feel particularly passionate about the career path I’ve chosen…or any career path if I’m being honest.

At my current job some people bend over backwards and for what? Usually our work is either seen by no one or seen by few people. It has little impact. At my former jobs you might extrapolate that working harder would make the client more money, but causation is almost impossible to prove between marketing and purchase. We have to take customer surveys at face value and people are not great reporters on their own decision making :).

Maybe this motivation comes from fear. I understand that a lot of people have no savings and despite in my field making a lot of money they have obligations that have trapped them into spending most, if not all of it (to be fair they trapped themselves into these obligations :)). People could be reacting out of fear for their job or fear that if they don’t go above and beyond that they won’t receive their bonus or some other compensation that they need.

I’m not sure where this motivation to work yourself to the bone for seemingly no reason comes from, but I’m curious to understand it further.

UPDATE: The woman I’m talking about in this post has since quit without a new job lined up after less than 6 months at the company. Coincidence?