Work to live? Or Live to work?

I produce, therefore I am.

Last week marked my third “Metaversary” at Meta. That’s right, I have been working for three years already straight after college. Although three-year is still very short, I experienced quite a lot of changes at the workplace, witnessing the change of company name, massive layoffs, the dipped and rebounded stock price, and had promotion of course. Work has been my main focus for the past years, I feel the urge to write something to reflect on it.

Why work so hard?

One thing I didn’t expect before entering the full-time workforce is that people are working so darn hard! In college, I had this naive idea that Americans are chilled at work. They go to work at 10 and go home at 5 and are able to spend after-work hours with family and friends or develop new hobbies. I was hoping to relax a bit after my intensive undergrad life.

However, the reality is the opposite, at least not for my colleagues and the tech industry. Many people work on weekends; receive work messages after 9 pm almost every day (sometimes even at midnight at 2 am); and often carry their work laptops and reply to work messages when they are on vacation. And a funny observation is, that the higher the job title people get, the busier they are: more meetings, more emails, more projects, and more business responsibility. In other words, senior employees are expected to work longer hours. And it was not a surprise to hear director-level people spend more than 60-70 hours working every week.

There are many more examples: an employee at the hottest AI company OpenAI shared his daily working schedule on X, unveiling a day in the life of the smartest group of people. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, X, and many more, and also one of the richest persons on the planet, is known for his extraordinary work ethic, often clocking in over 120 hours per week.

In fact, the average American, despite living in one of the world's wealthiest nations, works approximately six hours more per week than their French counterpart, surpasses the average German by a full workday, and even outpaces the notoriously overworked Japanese by three and a half hours.

In the past, wealth and work hours often had an inverse relationship: the wealthier an individual or society was, the less they needed to work. This was largely because wealth provided the luxury of leisure time. In these contexts, leisure is often seen as a status symbol. The term 'leisure' itself originates from the Latin word “licere,” meaning “to be permitted to abstain from occupation or services.” The Athenians, for instance, held leisure in high regard, considering it “the highest value of life.” They would dedicate entire days to artistic pursuits, sports, and philosophical contemplation.

This appreciation for leisure time is still evident in some affluent European countries today. These societies are structured to support and value personal leisure time, with more public holidays, fewer working hours, and lifestyles that prioritize leisure. However, this is not the case in America. Even the highest earners, who theoretically could afford to work less, are putting in more hours than ever before.

This presents an intriguing paradox: despite their considerable wealth, why Americans work so hard?

American Workism

Because people choose to work hard.

Especially for white-collar professionals, who are less likely to have other sources of meaning like organized religion, have begun to view their jobs as an alternative source of identity. Work is not just about the paycheck. For these professionals, work provides a sense of community, purpose, and meaning. They are 'workists', individuals who derive their sense of self and purpose from their work, much like how a religious person finds meaning in their faith. For a workist, work ought to be a source of personal fulfillment and meaning rather than labor.

Trevor Noah, the renowned comedian, has also humorously highlighted this phenomenon before in his speech “Okay but what do you DO”, discussing how work has become the new identity for Americans.

Indeed, the concept of finding purpose in work is ingrained in Americans from an early age: students are encouraged to delve deep into their personal interests and demonstrate their dedication to a specific field of study to secure admission into reputable colleges; job seekers, on the other hand, are expected to align their skills and experiences with a company's mission, thereby conveying that they are the ideal candidates for the job; startup founders are often required to share personal narratives that highlight their innate passion for their projects and their enthusiasm to make a difference in the world, all in the pursuit of securing funding. Even those who may not naturally align with this mindset often find themselves conforming to it, sometimes even feigning passion, in order to fit in.

“You’ve got to find what you love… If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” Stevens Jobs told a stadium of Stanford graduates in his famous 2005 commencement address. “It’s that community - being surrounded by a group of like-minded individuals, being part of something bigger than yourself - that inspires people to work harder, spend more time at work, and just have fun,” WeWork cofounder Adam Neumann told the audience at TechCrunch Disrupt in 2017. And we hear “the only way to do great work is to love what you do” “life is too short not to follow your passion”.

This culture underscores the extent to which work and personal identity are intertwined in American society. The modern ideology of workism asks for two distinct pursuits - money and fulfillment - to coalesce.

Work to live? Or Live to work?

Would the advent of AI revolution shift society to a less work-centric society when productivity was no longer limited by labor and human services? Most likely not, at least not in America. Just like industrialization and automation didn’t stop people from working at night when productivity was no longer limited by sunlight. New types of jobs could emerge, and existing roles could evolve to require different skills. Furthermore, societal and cultural attitudes towards work and productivity could continue to place a high value on work, regardless of technological advancements.

In the US, perhaps the most American “I am” label is “a producer”. Here, capitalism is not just an economic system, it is also a social philosophy - a philosophy that says a person is as valuable as their output. Workers are measured by their productivity, companies are measured by their growth, and the country’s health is measured by its GDP. In the US, productivity is more than a measurement; it’s a moral good.

Many Americans, including myself (though I am not American), have internalized capitalism, the prevailing economic system. I strive to optimize my time for the best outcomes, prefer working with efficient individuals, and enjoy goal-oriented hobbies. (I finished the first draft of this newsletter on a 9-hour international flight when on vacation). While I do love rest, travel, and pure, unadulterated FUN, it feels somewhat taboo to declare oneself a hedonist, to admit to spending time on 'nothing'. This mirrors the sentiment in the tech industry where being a 'producer' is highly valued. I don't want to be perceived as a spender or consumer; rather, I aspire to be a creator and producer.

I produce, therefore I am.

The Dark Side

Capitalism, with its ebbs and flows, can be a double-edged sword. During periods of rapid macroeconomic growth and favorable markets, the benefits of capitalism can be amplified and overvalued. However, when the macroeconomy lags and markets dip, the darker side of this value system begins to surface.

Capital can be ruthless. When a company's economic returns fall short of expectations, layoffs ensue. In 2022, my company's value plummeted to nearly a quarter of what it was at the start of the year, leading to the largest layoff in Meta's history. I vividly recall the sleepless night before the layoff list was to be revealed via email at 3 am. Many of us felt like puppets, our fates controlled by others. Truly, life has many choices and we can always find new jobs. That night, it became painfully clear that no matter how fervently one subscribes to workism, in this game of efficiency, we are seen as mere labor. Loyalty to the business will always supersede loyalty to employees.

It was sad to see colleagues let go. Too many of us bring the best of ourselves to work and bring the leftovers home. I empathize with those who were let go despite their excellent work ethic and overtime hours. I wished they had cared less about work so it would get hurt less and wouldn’t “spill over” to other parts of their lives.

Diversify values

Putting all of the eggs of our identity in professional baskets is dangerous. The more we let one part of who we are define us, the more vulnerable we are and less resilient we are to change.

I recalled that in one of my undergrad CSE entrepreneur seminars, one time we had Greg Gottesman, the co-founder of venture capital Pioneer Square Lab as the guest speaker. He gave a speech about how to start a good business. While I've forgotten most of his speech, one point stuck with me: he said as an entrepreneur, you really need to build your own support system other than work. If your identity is entirely tied to one aspect of who you are - whether it be your jobs, your relationship, your net worth, or your success as a parent - one snag, even if it’s out of your control, can shatter your self-esteem and collapse. However, if you cultivate diverse sources of identity and meaning, you'll be better equipped to weather life's inevitable challenges.

Much as investor benefits from diversifying their investments, we, too, benefit from diversifying our sources of identity and meaning. Meaning is not something that is bestowed upon us. It is something we create. And as with any act of creation, it requires time and energy - the time to invest in nonwork pursuits and the energy to actually do so.

Ending

The past three years have been good three years. I was blessed with rapid career growth and the perks of working at a tech giant company. Work gives me stress and anxiety but it did reward me with short spurts of serotonin.

I do value economic outcomes, impactful jobs, and the efficiency at work. In some ways, my brain has been shaped to think this way and it has become my lifestyle (I have goal-oriented hobbies like playing the cello. I enjoy playing music but striving for a good goal still poses a frame of improvement, for better or for worse)

There’s still so much for me to learn, grow, and produce, but work is not everything. Work hard and go home :)

Resources

• Average annual hours actually worked per worker, OECD stats

• Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labors,

• Simone Stolzoff, The Good Enough Job: Reclaiming Life from Work, 2023