Boss Q: How to motivate the unmotivated?
Hypothetically speaking, and knowing my self, I will end up being a very stern, demanding, and very bossy boss in the future. However, I will deal with things patiently until the point where I can no longer feel that my employees are motivated in their current life career choices. Their current career is actually the job they are conducting under my super vision at the moment. So really, how can I motivate a person or what can I do with people who hate what they are doing? All they talk about is hating what they are doing work wise, hating their field of study, and constantly talking about other types of careers?
If I was a boss, what can I do with such a person?
Person A hates what he/she is doing.
Person B influences person A’s hatefulness and suggests that he/she change careers as well.
Person A agrees, and Person B is extra motivated that Person A is wanting to change careers.
Person C is the Boss and hears all this constant conflicting ideas and random career choices that his employees are publicly talking about.
Person C is unhappy that he hired, trained, and paying Person A and B for their work.
Person A and Person B don’t give a crap and are so unmotivated to care.
Person C is unsure what to do and wondering if firing Person A and Person B and finding new replacements to spend time and effort in training them all over again is worth the time and money. Is this a good thing to do? Firing two unmotivated people, or trying to find a way to motivate them?
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Let me explain why I am mentioning all this. This morning I made a tough choice. I made a choice and I am not going to back out of it this time. I will begin explaining more about me. I love technology and every aspect of it. I am part of Generation X. I went into this field knowing this is what I want to do in my life. I studied it, worked at it, and I will keep working in this field till the day I retire. I want to be a leader in this field and contribute my passion of it positively to other people out there to make use of it. That’s my plan as of this morning.
I am still very unmotivated at work to do any work. But that’s because we are hanging on a string. No clue if we are going to get renewed or not. The projects are not on demand and asked to be finished up or worked on. So I am in idle state. Spending my time trying to figure out what more I can learn off the Internet and reading about businesses and jobs and project management. My typical day lately. I know I am guilty of not doing anything, but after working for 5.5 years, I deserve a brake. I never had a real vacation. I never took any real time off, and this is the time when I re-evaluate my self and my career.
I then realized how much I love technology, computers, and this is what I like to be in for the rest of my life. It’s my passion. It’s my life. I enjoy it. I like to learn more, and technology amuses me and makes me happy and alive! It’s what makes me Mona.
However, listening to my co-workers the past few days talking about how much they don’t like computers, and are sick of it, and talking more and more about other completely different career choices, I realized that no; I do not want to work with these people ever again. Not in my field, or any field. They have no passion in what they are doing or motivation to be patient and slowly work their way up the ladder of success in this highly demanding field. Why would I stick around? Why should I put up with this? I think getting these 2 interviews is a sign that I need to seriously leave. At this point, I don’t care if my grant funded organization gets funded or not. I don’t care at all. I am not staying past December 31st. If we get renewed and I stayed, I would seriously have a heart attack or stroke. I would feel like shit coming to work every day surrounded by people who don’t give a shit about what they are doing and just working for the money.
If you only work for the money, then you are doing a horrible job. Where is the passion? How can anyone be successful in what they are doing if they don’t give a shit about the final result and satisfying the customer? I just don’t understand people out there. I really don’t.
Seriously, if I was a boss and I had or heard an employee of mine have any ounce of lack of passion and disrespect of their work than I would seriously say, “sorry, you are out. I can find someone else to fill your spot. Someone who actually likes what they are doing and have their heart and soul in this career and life choice. I will find others who are willing to produce products with a positive result. Those are the keepers and worth the money.”
I am just analyzing too much lately of life and people around me. It’s quite disturbing what I realize and discover about other people.
Hello world! My name is Mona, a Palestinian living in London, Ontario, Canada. I am a computer programmer and graphics designer. This is my personal web blog, and you can learn more about me [
For some people a job is just a means to an end. I don’t find it unusual that some people hate their job. It is very common in the workplace just as dead wood is. We all don’t end up doing something we enjoy for a living. You are lucky if you do. Some of us just take a job out of economic necessity. A job is better than no job at all. They can’t wait around for years for the right job to come along they have bills to pay and families to feed. They would like something better but that something better hasn’t come along just yet. People, who hate their job eventually quit, retire or have a heart attack from the stress of a job they hate. Eventually in the end those people will move. You just have to be patient. If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about how other people feel. You should just be concerned with how you are fairing emotionally. Trust me they aren’t sitting there thinking about how you feel about your job.
If there is no passion in your work, you will end up doing a poor job and get fired anyways. So earning money to fill the need for survival is not going to work this way. It never works.
Just because somebody doesn’t like what they are doing for a living doesn’t necessarily mean that they will do a poor job. There are some nurses that hate their job but they are good at what they do. You can’t judge somebody’s performance on passion alone.
I still don’t agree.
If a nurse hates what she is doing and helping in my treatment, I will tell her to F-off! I don’t care if she can do the job, in the end, she will not care about the RESULTS!
I personally can NOT work on something without passion. Basically I won’t establish anything, will give poor results. So its not worth it anyway. Either do something you like and you will be self motivated.
For example, I cannot motivate myself to do telemarketing. I did try once and I went crazy, how could I fake a motivation, sucks big time!
I too love technology… my job allows me to travel to different places… work on equipment…and sometimes have to figure out challenging problems … it can be very satisfying… I can tell that when im in the office…that if i had to come to the same place and answer the phone every day..i’d probably be gone after a couple of years. I think someone can be adequate or even good at their job if they are talented enough..without necessarily liking the job… but i think loving the challenge of your work is what can push you over the edge to be GREAT and not just good.. Even if you love your job…apathy can strike… my “hobby” my band if you will on weekends… …i love singing..and playing but the aggravation of dealing with the selfish/erratic other bandmembers has me pretty much not caring…other than enjoying the extra money i get paid… hmm anybody know a freelance bass player..?? we could use one..