“Work is the New God” — The Atlantic, 2019, 5:33 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAPQnCBnOLc

When and why did we start working ourselves to death? This video is about a “psychological” concept called workism, though I find it very similar to Max Weber’s theory of the Protestant Ethic. Either way, our culture tells us we can find our life’s purpose through work rather than other social institutions. The video pins this on the creation of bureaucracy (another Weberian classic) and the rise of work-related statuses like being an executive (Weber wrote a lot about that too). Unfortunately, most of our jobs are meaningless and designed to make other people wealthy. Yet we still cling to the idea that “hustling” will bring us happiness.

What can we do as a society to reduce or prevent burnout? How else can sociology inform the video’s argument? I’m not accusing the video of plagiarising a one of sociology’s founders, but it would have been nice to throw the discipline some credit instead of psychology. Another good question to ask is, what would max Weber say about our hustle culture?

From the video’s description: Should a job provide a paycheck or a purpose? Traditional religion lends some people meaning, community, and self-actualization. For many Americans, work has stepped in to fill that role. But this all-encompassing worship of work is setting us up for mass anxiety and inevitable burnout, says Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson.