Linked: How the Other Half Works: an Adventure in the Low Status of Software Engineers

via Michael O. Church:

What most of us don’t realize is that this culture of mandatory “passion” lowers our social status, because it encourages us to work unreasonably hard and irrespective of conditions. The fastest way to lose social status is to show acceptance of low social status. For example, programmers often make the mistake of overworking when understaffed, and this is a terrible idea. (“Those execs don’t believe in us, so let’s show them up by… working overtime on something they own!”) To do this validates the low status of the group that allows it to be understaffed. Executives, a more savvy sort, lose passion when denied the advancement or consideration they feel they deserve. They’re not obnoxious about this attitude, but they don’t try to cover it up, either. They’re not going to give a real effort to a project or company that acts against their own interests or lowers their own social status. They won’t negotiate against themselves by being “passionate”, either. They want to be seen as supremely competent, but not sacrificial. 

The exercise in this post was a great read but more so, the takeaway from the author is spot on. If you want to be seen as upper management, you have to behave like it. I’ve never intentionally acted one way or another and have chosen simply to be myself. I’ve seen the opposite effect as detailed above for more blue-collar jobs. If you don’t act passionate about potato wedges at your job at KFC, you likely won’t make shift-leader. An unhealthy love for potato wedges usually means promotion whereas if a coder really LOVES code and works 20 hours a day, they’ll likely keep her there forever.