Photo credit: http://www.girlsbasics.com

A great manager once told me “You’ve got to work with gusto!”. Showing up to work (especially on Monday mornings after a major snow storm), with the biggest smile on your face, can seriously feel like a new form of tyranny at times. Yet, a pep in your step and a smile on your face may very well prove to advance your career more than stellar performance. Better yet, under stressful job interview circumstances, a healthy dose of enthusiasm can bring you on top in a tight race.

According to a January 2015 Gallup poll, it appears only 31.5% of U.S. employees were engaged at work in 2014, with millenials coming in as the least engaged generation. Gallup’s definition of an engaged employee is one who is “involved in, enthusiastic about and committed to their work and workplace”.Let’s keep in mind this level of engagement is the highest since 2000 when Gallup first began measuring this performance indicator.

A 2013 Harvard Business School survey on employee engagement found 72% of respondents believe employee engagement has a direct link to high performance. In other words, the more employees are engaged, the more successful they are, and the better off the company’s bottom line. Basic, right?

This is all to say your employer wants you to show enthusiasm and passion at work. Whether you feel the latter or not may matter to you, but not so much to your boss. Sounds unfair, and even bordering on oppression? Maybe…Yet it’s the reality in most workplaces.

So if you happen, like most people, to be chained to the necessity of earning a living to do things like pay your rent or eat food, do you have to pretend to love your job even when you don’t? Well, you may just have to, or avoid that “cheery voice required” customer service job…

Do you feel being enthusiastic is a (forced) pre-requesite to success at work?

The Corporate Sis.