Workplace Wellbeing: Fuelled by passion but running on empty 

You may see your job as a labour of love, but what happens when it involves working long hours with little pay and limited prospects? Negotiating with your manager is a good place to start

Young, tired woman working from her home office late at night

IS IT time we stopped referring to some jobs as ‘callings’? Careers in teaching, healthcare, the arts, and the charity sector have long been seen as vocations because they attract people who are passionate about the profession. However, research has identified a phenomenon known as ‘passion exploitation’, where people’s devotion to their work is used to justify poor pay and working conditions.

An American paper, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2019, found that while caring deeply about one’s work is beneficial in many ways, it can also legitimise unfair management practices, such as asking employees to work extra hours without pay or take on tasks that aren’t in their job description. Certain employers, the researchers found, believed passionate workers would have volunteered for their work if given the chance and that the work was a reward in itself.