The job force in America has been experiencing a shift from working a typical 9 to 5, where the only intention is to make a check and go home, to finding a way to implement passion into the workplace.
As children, we are encouraged to dream of a career that fits our personalities and passions. When looking at the job market today, it’s difficult to see where passion fits into the narrative. So, it inevitably begs the question, is there room for passion in the American job market, or is it a mere fantasy?
Conflicting beliefs tend to spiral around the answer to this question. One side of the coin typically views a job as a means to make ends meet and nothing more, insisting that joy comes exclusively from efforts outside of the workforce. Others argue that finding a job that you are passionate about is the most important part of finding the job for you.
Arguably, the answer lies within the middle of both of these conflicting beliefs, and Americans have found this out in recent years. More and more workers are becoming satisfied with their jobs in recent years.
“62.3 percent of US workers were satisfied in 2022—up from 60.2 percent in 2021. That’s the highest level recorded since the survey began in 1987,” according to the Conference Board.
Though satisfaction is not equivalent to passion, 20% of workers claimed to be passionate about their jobs, according to Apollo Technical.
Job satisfaction can come from simply receiving a paycheck or finding genuine joy in your work. Americans, overall, find that satisfaction mostly comes from their relationships with their co-workers and their managers, according to Pew Research.
Passion generally stems from a person’s internal beliefs and interests, which do not always come with a job to match, making it difficult to find a job that fulfills one’s passions. Jobs such as nursing, teaching, entrepreneurship or marine biology, for example, seem to pair with personal passions more than jobs like accounting or bartending.
Though it is not impossible to be passionate about these jobs, these are less likely to fit our general mold of passion, making it seem as if implementing passion is impossible to achieve in these jobs. However, such an assumption is not necessarily the case, and if it were, satisfaction is a much easier thing to achieve in the workforce with the correct initiative and attitude.
Also, passion is not necessarily something that blooms at birth but rather something that develops gradually over time and as one grows. This being said, finding one’s passion can come late in life or as a result of entering a job that once seemed passionless.
Today’s society offers many opportunities and jobs that cover many different spectrums of desires and passions, which makes it increasingly easier to find passion and satisfaction in the workplace.
Today’s workers are also becoming more and more open to changing career paths within their lifetimes. Young American workers change their jobs 5.7 times on average, and most people hold 12 jobs during their lifetime. In just the last year alone, 32% of people 25 to 44 have considered a career change and 29% of people have changed their field after college, according to Apollo Technical.
Passion in the workplace is within reach for all of us, and if it is found late in life or if one has not quite found it yet, changing your career is not the end of the world. There is room for both passion and a paycheck in America, not one or the other.
Kylie Tutterrow is a sophomore political science major from Spartanburg, South Carolina. You can reach her at [email protected].
