Trouble with Passion: How Searching for Fulfillment at Work Fosters Inequality

by Erin A. Cech

Probing the ominous side of career advice to "follow your passion," this data-driven study explains how the passion principle fails us and perpetuates inequality by class, gender, and race; and it suggests how we can reconfigure our relationships to paid work.
 
"Follow your passion" is a popular mantra for career decision-making in the United States. Passion-seeking seems like a promising path for avoiding the potential drudgery of a life of paid work, but this "passion principle"—seductive as it is—does not universally translate. The Trouble with Passion reveals the significant downside of the passion the concept helps culturally legitimize and reproduce an exploited, overworked white-collar labor force and broadly serves to reinforce class, race, and gender segregation and inequality.
 
Grounding her investigation in the paradoxical tensions between capitalism's demand for ideal workers and our cultural expectations for self-expression, sociologist Erin A. Cech draws on interviews that follow students from college into the workforce, surveys of US workers, and experimental data to explain why the passion principle is such an attractive, if deceptive, career decision-making mantra, particularly for the college educated. Passion-seeking presumes middle-class safety nets and springboards and penalizes first-generation and working-class young adults who seek passion without them. The ripple effects of this mantra undermine the promise of college as a tool for social and economic mobility. The passion principle also feeds into a culture of overwork, encouraging white-collar workers to tolerate precarious employment and gladly sacrifice time, money, and leisure for work they are passionate about. And potential employers covet, but won't compensate, passion among job applicants. This book asks, What does it take to center passion in career decisions? Who gets ahead and who gets left behind by passion-seeking? The Trouble with Passion calls for citizens, educators, college administrators, and industry leaders to reconsider how we think about good jobs and, by extension, good lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Psychology, Sociology, Business

341 pages, Hardcover

First published November 9, 2021

Reviews

[MNBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very detailed and thought provoking. I feel like I was a child coming of age as messages of “follow your dream” became active life advice. As a middle class family, I absolutely felt many of the struggles in limited safety nets and social capital to find a job after finishing graduate school. I have also hired many employees who seemed “passionate” and willing to work hard and learn—seeing them as employees who will want to stay and grow with the company for many years. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve also struggled with passion at work (is this still something I’m passionate about?) and had to mentally slap myself into remembering I’m well compensated and I have a secure position!! Erin presents many interviews and stories to show that following only passion can cause harm in some cases and it is not necessarily best for workers. It also fosters inequalities in the work place. I thought this was just a fantastic read and also watched bits of her YouTube videos which were very well explained. The only thing I wish was more clearly defined was “choice washing” which seems to be a term I can only find mentioned in this particular book.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Cech nails it. Pursuing your passion requires privilege to begin with, and even then can lead to negative experiences. It's time to reframe how work can fit into life rather than the reverse!

[Kelli Hayes · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a disappointing book that lacked the rigor I would expect from an academic. Although the author’s data set was reasonably convincing for the main conclusion (the societal value of picking a career based on passion is harmful to those in lower socioeconomic classes), she kept insisting that this had racial and gender implications even while repeatedly saying that the data does not show any differences in race and gender. It read like she is so wed to her political ideology that she will insist on evidence for it even while recognizing the evidence is not there. Also, her lack of experience working in or even speaking to people in companies to understand hiring practices and performance implications for the passion principle clearly showed, and this meant her suggested policy implications were thin. Compared to other sociology-oriented books that have true intellectual weight and rigor along with an understanding of the “real world” and suggestions for meaningful policy implications (e.g., “Of Boys and Men”, “The Anxious Generation”), The Trouble with Passion is very disappointing.

[Spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very thought provoking. I will say that this book is all big words: you will make the most of your reading level. But there are graphs or tables that visualize too

Overall, quite insightful. Erin does a good job of saying, while following your passion is good, there are many factors that affect it, for better or worse. This includes whether our economy and culture facilitates or exploits it.

I will dock it a star for being quite wordy and hard to read at times. There is definitely an anti-capitalist leaning at times, at the very least a cynicism towards it. But I don't think that prevents any lessons to be applied to society as it stands now.

[Lauren · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are two significant problems with this book. The first is that it’s entirety too wordy, as if the author is trying to impress the reader with the number of words used. Ideas are repeated as nauseum; a full third of the book is repeated ideas. Secondly, the reason behind the author’s premise is simply that following one’s passion is one of the basic tenets of a capitalist society. The author wants to change the US into a socialist society, shaming anyone who believes in capitalism.

[Roy Kenagy]

DMPL EXAMINED 220901 SUPPORTS ALPERT GOOD-ENOUGH LIFE, BUT NOT CITED THERE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN "PASSION" AND WELL-BEING / SOCIAL ROLES

INTRODUCTION GOOD SUMMARY Individualism as social/economic focus DISTINGUISH FROM SDT Cites GIDDENS MODERNITY & SELF-IDENTITY self-expression a "reflexive project" - evolving narrative that one nurtures, refines, and enacts... (p80, p231)

[Kristen]

Written very academically and lots of statistics. I skimmed the second half. Got a little repetitive. Some good points about how you have to have money and or privilege to move ahead when you are ‘following your passion.’ It might lead people to not evaluate salaries and career growth.
I wonder where other things might come into play with this like imposter syndrome.

[Atwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

dnf

[Emily Kelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting concept but a little repetitive

[Ravyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was completely taken aback by this book. I don't think I would have ever picked it up if it weren't required for my graduate methods course this term. The title is strange/vague to me; I didn't expect to find it interesting. But in fact, it shook me. I regularly challenge my own assumptions about the world, but the author-identified "passion principle" is not one that I've ever examined too closely. I fully relate to feeling as if finding one's passion is the highest good; I've made my own life decisions on that basis. Cech, however, makes a compelling case for the damage that this cultural schema renders in American society. Reading this book forced me to rethink everything about my career trajectory and how I relate my identity to my productivity. Additionally, this was well-written, sans jargon, and compellingly argued; I would recommend it to any reader, whether they are taking methods courses or not.

[Laura May]

I for sure want to read this after listening to the related podcast on 'The Professor is In': https://theprofessorisin.com/podcast/...