All Play and No Work: Antecedents and Consequences of Pursuing A Calling Outside of Work

Authors:

Abstract: Through an inductive, qualitative study of 81 musicians who worked full-time in domains unrelated to music, we introduce the construct of non-work callings, i.e., activities perceived as callings which are pursued outside of the domain of work. We differentiate non-work callings from constructs such as hobby, secondary job, side hustle, and gig, and we show that that, for our participants, music was a calling, which they perceived to have answered, albeit outside of work. We flesh out the experience of answering a calling outside of work and explain why and how people do so. We also show that, while this experience has some negative consequences (predicted by existing research), most of our participants perceived it to be the optimal way to answer their calling because it allowed them to preserve their passion for music in its purest form and to pursue a wider set of interests alongside music. Finally, we outline how this novel construct changes the common understanding of what it means to pursue a calling and, more broadly, what the concepts of “work” and “nonwork” mean in contemporary careers.

Track: CULTGEN

Keywords: Careers, Meaning of Work, Qualitative