My Office Is Bugged!!

So I'm on the phone with a peer in the industry and we're talking about finding people who will have passion about their work and passion about their company. This, of course, launched us into a debate about which is more important and - if at all - which creates or encourages the other.

I'm of the belief that when someone that is passionate about what they do is matched with a company that is passioniate about supporting it's people that the end result is a driven employee that is passionate about thier company. Now granted there are lots of other issues here to look at in the larger scope of "passion" for people and company, but darned if a quick search for others opinions didn't find this recent post that is almost exactly part of my conversation with my peer...

Kathy Sierra said:
People ask me, "How can I get our employees to be passionate about the company?" Wrong question. Passion for our employer, manager, current job? Irrelevant. Passion for our profession and the kind of work we do? Crucial. If I own company FOO, I don't need employees with a passion for FOO. I want those with a passion for the work they're doing. The company should behave just like a good user interface -- support people in doing what they're trying to do, and stay the hell out of their way. Applying the employer-as-UI model, the best company is one in which the employees are so engaged in their work that the company fades into the background.