On Work
Hello, I hope that you had a great weekend. I went down to Philadelphia and met with some awesome Forward leaders and volunteers there as well as a large group of students at UPenn.
This week on the podcast I interview one of my favorite journalists, economics reporter for the Atlantic Derek Thompson. Derek recently came out with a book of essays, “On Work: Money, Meaning, Identity” which is incredibly timely given the arrival of generally useful Artificial Intelligence.
Derek writes, “[T]echnology could exert a slow but continual downward pressure on the value and availability of work – that is, on wages and on the share of prime-age workers with full-time jobs. Eventually, by degrees, that could create a new normal, where the expectation that work will be a central feature of adult life dissipates for a significant portion of society . . . Technology creates some jobs too, but the creative half of creative destruction is easily overstated. Nine out of 10 workers today are in occupations that existed 100 years ago, and just 5 percent of the jobs generated between 1993 and 2013 came from “high tech” sectors . . . our newest industries tend to be the most labor-efficient: they don’t require nearly as many people to produce the same value.”
I personally think that AI will be extraordinarily disruptive in particular to repetitive, rules-based white-collar work, which comprises about 20% of all jobs in the U.S. economy. Think everything from call center workers to management consultants.
Interestingly, Derek argues that our response these past years has been to expect more of work than ever. He says, “We now expect community, purpose, fulfillment – many of the things we used to ask of our religion – from our work.”
He calls this new religion ‘Workism.’ “Workism is three things. First, it is the belief that, in a time when religion is in decline, more people, especially the elite, are turning to work to provide everything we have historically expected of organized religions. Second, it is the irony then, in a time of declining trust in most institutions like politics and religion, we expect more than ever from the companies that employ us; and that, in an age of declining community attachments, the workplace, has, for many become the last community standing. Third it is a mixed blessing. The gospel of labor creates devoted workers and extraordinary achievements, giving purpose, building routine, and filling time. But our devotion to work can also leave a wake of anguish, with many of its adherents feeling overextended, exhausted and empty.”
It’s quite a proposition by Derek, yet it rings true. Many people do want a sense that a career is a calling as much as a way to pay the bills. I think that our preoccupation / obsession with work threatens to blind us to large-scale secular changes because we moralize on an individual level instead of applying it to a community or industry. Work disappearing? It must be that you’re not looking hard enough on your quest for fulfillment. Derek correctly points out that not that long ago, virtually no one thought of work in this way; it was more a means of survival.
He also observes that losing a job often takes a massive psychological toll on individuals - akin to the death of a loved one - and that most don’t make positive use of idle time. Time use studies show a lot of watching TV and surfing on the computer for jobless men in particular.
I wrote in the War on Normal People, “Here’s the fundamental problem: we need work more than work needs us.” If work is our current faith, it’s not going to take excellent care of us in an era of new technologies of unprecedented power. What will we do with the time that we have?
For Derek’s new book, click here. For my interview with Derek on topics like remote work and creativity, click here. For the War on Normal People, click here. To fuel a change in our politics so that it addresses modern issues like AI, check out Forward’s new website here; we are making a fundraising push so please consider donating today!
