The pitfalls of loving your job a little too much

Back in the dim and distant past, job candidates had interests or hobbies. Those interests could be introspective: reading a book was a perfectly acceptable way of spending your spare time. No longer. Today you will probably be asked if you have a “personal passion project”, and the more exhausting your answer sounds, the better. Go white-water rafting, preferably with orphans. Help build motorway crossings for endangered animals. If you must read, at least do so in the original.

Passion is becoming a staple for workplace success. A new piece of research from Jon Jachimowicz and Hannah Weisman of Harvard Business School includes an analysis of 200m job postings in America. It finds that the number which explicitly mention “passion” rose over time, from 2% in 2007 to 16% in 2019.