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Comment by dumbfounder | Hacker News Reader

I am part of a group of CEOs that meet with a coach to work through company issues, and one of the things they continually drill into us is that employees need to buy into the mission of the company in order to be most effective. The reason they are most effective is that they are happy when working on something that means something to them. So I think it's good advice the other way as well. Find a company with a mission you can get behind, which should help motivate you to excel, and thus have a sense of accomplishment, and ultimately be happier. I think this is different than working on something that overlap with your interests. You might be interested in cars but an auto parts outlet and Tesla have very different missions. Also, if you don't like management, don't be a manager.

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> Find a company with a mission you can get behind, which should help motivate you to excel, and thus have a sense of accomplishment

I'd say that having realistic expectations about work (you're not "changing the world", you're just building a product that's useful for some people and makes you and your employer some money) and having reasonable working hours (no more than 40 or whatever is in the contract) can be more important.

If you identify too much with the product or company, that can be a sure path to overwork, caring and investing too much time and effort without getting any recognition and neglecting your own needs.

But of course, given equal conditions, prefer working for a company with a good mission. Just don't expect too much.

> Find a company with a mission you can get behind, which should help motivate you to excel, and thus have a sense of accomplishment, and ultimately be happier.

The company mission exists to guide decision making. Employee motivation and happiness comes from understanding that a job exists to pay for a fulfilling life

High performing people can choose where they work. Here's how you can attract them to your company:

- Make their job reasonably challenging. Their accomplishments should look good on a resume.

- Give them reasonable autonomy on how they work and who they work with (hiring).

- Enable a fulfilling life, whether on the job or out of the job: Reasonable and predictable work hours, good working environment.

- Don't make them pretend to drink the kool-aid. In fact, keep the kool-aid in a corner where people have to go out of their way to drink it. Having guiding principles on how to do business is fine, just don't pretend like someone's life motivation is to change the world through quantum-AI-enabled-crypto-retargeting-adtech.

- What makes me in particular go to work everyday? I like my coworkers and becoming better at my craft.

- There's no shortcut for a good working environment. Focus on having the right people/incentives/culture. Perks and offsites only go so far and won't fix your company.

Must be careful not to creat a culture of “toxic positivity” where everyone is expected to drink the kool aid, and talking freely about real problems becomes impossible.

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