[wlll]

The last time someone tried to get me "passionate" about the mission of the company it was so I'd take less than market compensation.

Apparently because I would be "helping people" I should be willing to take a pay cut. The people I would be helping were paying for the service, but it seems that helping these paying customers wasn't enough motivation to set up some sort of reasonable profit share or equity scheme from the other side of this particular bargain.

[MrEldritch]

I'm pretty sure this is specifically what "passion" means. It means that you're "really" getting paid the full rate, but because you love the work you're doing so much, you are then paying the employer to get to do it so it comes out as a net rate lower than you'd expect for the amount of work you're doing.

I don't actually know if employers ever mean anything else by "passion".

[wlll]

Right. What I'm saying is that people seem to be shoving "passion" into places where it doesn't belong, so to speak, as a way of reducing compensation.

[cjsawyer]

It’s the same thing as telling artists to work for exposure or telling teachers to work for the love of seeing students learn.