Non Sequitur: Do you love your job?

       I once told a manager of mine that, while I enjoy my work, it would never come before my family.  While this is typically viewed as career suicide, I have reasoned this out.  It comes down to defining love.  But first, lets look at my job.

       I work for a company so large, you are currently sitting where you can see something they made.  You may not know it, and I'm not going to say who they are, due to corporate policy.  Which is point one: rather than say you can't ever mention your job, or that you can't blog, or even that you are not allowed to speak ill of the company, they simply made a policy that you don't disclose precisely who you work for online.  A well-reasoned, smart policy, actually.

       Also, they pay above scale.  The benefits to the employee are simple: higher pay.  The benefits to the employer are manifold.  They gain higher morale, better productivity, (because someone is waiting for you to vacate that seat) and generally, a better class of employee.  This idea is so old, and so obviously beneficial to the company, that Henry Ford himself, notorious cheapskate, used it.

       My benefits package is what you would expect from a company that size, and my 401k is managed by better fund managers than yours.  Overall, they are a great employer who respects the workforce they have.  Yet I do not love my job.

       I enjoy my work.  I am doing the kind of work that is challenging, and for the most part, fun.  I am surrounded by like-minded people who enjoy the job at least as much as I do.  The conditions are good, the commute is less than the national average.  Overall I am happy there.  Yet I do not love my job.

       Love is not only a mutual exchange, it is something that has a clear definition.  It is putting someone else's needs before your own.  When you love someone, that is what you do.

       My employer does not love me.  They respect me.  I do not want my employer to love me.  I want them to respect me. They do not put their needs ahead of mine.  The benefits, pay, etc. are not examples of putting my needs first; rather they exemplify the acknowledgement of my needs.  Each of those benefits comes with an offsetting benefit to the company.  Mostly this takes the form of a better workforce.

       I do not love my employer.  I respect them.  (Well, as much as I'm capable of respecting anyone, or anything.)  My family, I love.  Love conquers all.