"The decline of traditional faith in America has coincided with an explosion of new atheisms."

"Some people worship beauty, some worship political identities, and others worship their children. But everybody worships something. And workism is among the most potent of the new religions.... It is the belief that work is not only necessary to economic production, but also the centerpiece of one’s identity and life’s purpose.... [E]lite 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. This shift defies economic logic.... It’s emotional—even spiritual.... In the past century, the American conception of work has shifted from jobs to careers to callings—from necessity to status to meaning.... The problem with this gospel—Your dream job is out there, so never stop hustling—is that it’s a blueprint for spiritual and physical exhaustion. Long hours don’t make anybody more productive or creative; they make people stressed, tired and bitter. But the overwork myths survive 'because they justify the extreme wealth created for a small group of elite techies'.... On a deeper level, Americans have forgotten an old-fashioned goal of working: It’s about buying free time.... [T]he same perspective that inspired the economist John Maynard Keynes to predict in 1930 that Americans would eventually have five-day weekends, rather than five-day weeks. It is the belief—the faith, even—that work is not life’s product, but its currency. What we choose to buy with it is the ultimate project of living."

From "Workism Is Making Americans Miserable/For the college-educated elite, work has morphed into a religious identity—promising identity, transcendence, and community, but failing to deliver" by Derek Thompson (in The Atlantic).