[srkiNZ]

This comment really hit home for me, thank you for posting it. Thinking about it, for the last few years the only motivating thing about work has been to "do it for the person next to you", to try and help them, make their life easier.

I really struggle to be motivated by company mission, values. It might be because recently I have worked in mostly quite boring industries (banking, insurance, retirement funds etc...) with little competition or incentives to be better/go faster.

The financial compensation is also not a great motivator anymore as I've been quite lucky where I feel like if I was to not be able to work anymore, I would still be in a pretty good spot (and might even get to spend more time with my kids!), despite my "net worth" and retirement not looking that great.

The other great motivator of "do your best work" has fallen by the wayside as well due to personal issues and having to deal with the harsh realities of competing priorities over the last decade. It's become more of "do the best you can with what time/effort you can afford to give without your life falling apart".

WFH largely takes away any connection I had with "the person next to me" as they're not next to me. They're just words in IM or a face on a screen. Just writing this down is making me realise how important it was as the last good reason I had for "getting up and going to work" in the morning.

Definitely going to be looking for a job in the office for the next role.