2025/06/11 by Cristobal Young · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Decision Sciences · #Labor Movements and Unions #Ethics in Business and Education
paper · doi:10.1093/sf/soaf093
openalex publication_date 2025/06/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/15 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
“I miss being valuable.” —Emily, unemployed executive secretary (p. 60). “[G]oing to a job from 8:30 in the morning ‘til 5:00 in the afternoon, that’s doing death for nine and a half hours so I can get money so I can live.” —Ginger, on office work (emphasis added, p. 205). Is work a calling, or just a job? This deceptively simple question lies at the heart of What Work Means: Beyond the Puritan Work Ethic by Claudia Strauss. Drawing on a rich set of in-depth interviews with unemployed Americans, Strauss explores how people understand the role of work in a good life—and what happens when that work disappears. Strauss challenges the narrative that Americans are driven by a Weberian Protestant Ethic that casts labor as both moral duty and a source of deep meaning. While her unemployed respondents express discontent with their circumstances, many also resist the idea that work defines their identity or self-worth. Sometimes, a job is just a job. The result is a nuanced, humane portrait of people navigating unemployment not just as economic hardship, but also as an opportunity to reflect on what work is for.