On the Clock

There is an idea, promulgated notably in Derek Thompson’s 2019 Atlantic article “Workism Is Making Americans Miserable” that, for many elite American workers, jobs have become a kind of religion. The workplace, in this construction, is where people go to give themselves over to something bigger, to strive in community and seek transcendence. Instead of going to church or temple or whichever house of worship their ancestors might have frequented, these workers stake their identities on, and draw their sense of meaning and purpose from, their jobs.