Choosing Satisfaction Over Money

I've come to a point in my career that I will choose satisfaction over money. I don't believe it possible to maximize both at the same time, except in some rare exceptions. We spend too much time and mental energy at work to sacrifice a decent job for the sake of a fancy car, fancy house, and/or fancy partner that we can't spend much time in/with anyhow. And, waking up in a sweat worried about something at work does not make the house/car/lover any fancier.

Thus, I choose organizations that give me enough freedom to do software "the right way" (at least what I feel is the right way). I no longer expect them to appreciate what I feel is good software. If they do (which is fairly often, at least among the lower-ranking), it's merely a bonus. If one's pay is not at the high end, then you are less likely to be replaced when you do find such an organization. Thus, I only ask for raises if the company or working conditions suck. If I like the position or organization, I purposely try to keep my pay relatively low to fly below bean-counter chopping-block lists.

Also, when higher-rankers see that I am not gunning for their position/rank, they are more likely to give me freedom and leeway. It becomes a case where if I don't interfere with their goal, they don't interfere with mine. I'll even let them take most the credit for my successes if it helps my goal. (Although I do like some honorable mention to help my survivle.)

I also tend to "please" rank-and-file workers at the expense of big-wigs, who often want superficial eye-candy and gimmicks in my opinion. I know this costs me kudo points, for the big-wigs have more influence over staffing and pay. But, its one of the "satisfaction" sacrifices I decided to make. I like seeing smart tools help effective, hard-working "regular" people be more effective.

I expect that conversations like this have happened fairly often:

Manager-A: "Toppie did something undiplomatic and pissed off big-wig C. He wrote a long, detailed email showing the downsides of C's proposal. Perhaps we should replace him. I want to stay in good graces with big-wig C."
Manager-B: "Okay, lets see what that involves. Toppie makes X in wages. What would it cost to replace him?"
Manager-A: "Hmmm. According to this HR costing study, Toppie's position is going for about X + 12k right now. It would cost us 12k more a year to replace him. Plus, he knows the organization well, does decent work, and is a favorite with peons. They say his stuff saves them a lot of time and headaches."
Manager-B: "It guess it's not such an easy decision after all. Big-wig C needs to be put in his place sometimes anyhow. I'm just glad it's your guy doing it and not mine (chuckles)."
Manager-A: "Okay, shelf that idea for now. The devil we know may be better than a new, unknown devil. Plus, he's a cheap devil."

I suspect I've gotten older and my testosterone levels have dropped a bit, making pure rank and money less enticing. I don't want to fight to be leader of the wolf-pack anymore. Instead, I now focus more on making the world a better place even if it costs me some wolf-rank. (Perhaps this is an evolutionary mechanism where males past their reproductive prime instead devote their energy to helping the entire tribe, which shares common DNA, instead of fighting for the best reproductive rights within the tribe. Thus, our goals grow a bit wider with age.)

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Counterpoint. When I was younger, I was happy to be working on something interesting with fun people, even if I wasn't making much. I didn't care for office politics to make the higher-ups favor me, as long as my coworkers loved me I was safe. But as I get older, I get tired of scraping to pay the bills, and begin to think more of my family's security and the possibility of retiring before my 120th birthday. Even though the work is okay, the benefits are good, and the people aren't bad, the fact that my salary is consistently under both what I feel and the salary websites say that it should be is irritating. I want more money. But I'm already at the stage where I won't steal more time or energy from myself or my family for it. (Had to set some strict rules on that after a couple of near-burnouts.) So now what? How do I get back to that comfortable zone where satisfaction is worth more than money? The only way that I see is to get enough money to feel secure.

CategoryLifeStrategies, CategoryEmployment