This article came out while back, but it’s new to me and it’s coming at the right (or wrong?) time. I’m one of those people (guys) who have invested so much, probably too much, into “work” and all the things work does for us (and, specifically, men): financial reward, identity, intellectual stimulation, some relationships, power, sense of mastery, score-keeping. And, i admit, i’ve found “meaning” in work.
But, Thompson goes a bit further, arguing that work has replaced religion for many of us. Workism is…
the belief that work is not only necessary to economic production, but also the centerpiece of one’s identity and life’s purpose; and the belief that any policy to promote human welfare must always encourage more work.
The American Studies guy in me knows this is a real thing in America. It’s all over the place in culture (but that’s a different post).
And, Thompson weaves in, as a secondary point, that strain of thinking is driven mostly by men, unfortunately but not surprisingly.
By 2005, the richest 10 percent of married men had the longest average workweek. In that same time, college-educated men reduced their leisure time more than any other group. Today, it is fair to say that elite American men have transformed themselves into the world’s premier workaholics, toiling longer hours than both poorer men in the U.S. and rich men in similarly rich countries.....Today’s rich American men can afford vastly more downtime. But they have used their wealth to buy the strangest of prizes: more work!
Here’s a key quote that gives you the gist of the rest of the article:
But our desks were never meant to be our altars. The modern labor force evolved to serve the needs of consumers and capitalists, not to satisfy tens of millions of people seeking transcendence at the office. It’s hard to self-actualize on the job if you’re a cashier—one of the most common occupations in the U.S.—and even the best white-collar roles have long periods of stasis, boredom, or busywork. This mismatch between expectations and reality is a recipe for severe disappointment, if not outright misery, and it might explain why rates of depression and anxiety in the U.S. are “substantially higher” than they were in the 1980s, according to a 2014 study.
You might not be surprised to read the whole thing and realize that all that work is making us miserable, that the meaning we might find at work is illusory in the end, that the real value of work is the time we buy along the way and what we do with the outside of work, etc.
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