Why Work No Longer Works for Us [#3 Series How Work Works]
Work was once about survival, then about purpose. Now? It’s an existential crisis. Here’s why we all feel lost and what Durkheim saw coming.
Work is supposed to give us purpose. That’s the lie we’ve all been sold, anyway. But what if it’s actually the thing making us feel lost? Aristotle thought work was a distraction from true happiness. Durkheim warned that without meaning, work could disconnect us from ourselves and each other. And yet, here we are: burnt out, chasing productivity, and wondering why none of it feels like enough. Maybe the real problem isn’t us. Maybe it’s just the pace of change around us.
Welcome to the third article in the How Work Works series, where I attempt to make sense of how we ended up here. And, as always, my ask is for you to embrace my oversimplified explanation 🤓.
Aristotle Would Look Down on Your (and My!) 9 to 5
Aristotle believed that true happiness (eudaimonia) came from intellectual and philosophical pursuits, not labor. Work, in his view, was necessary for survival and mostly fell on the lower classes, but it wasn’t the key to a fulfilled life. He saw manual labor as a distraction, keeping people too busy to pursue wisdom and virtue.
It’s attributed to him the quote:"All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind." And we get it, right? If we’re working just to make it through the week, there’s no time left to be creative, to improve ourselves, or, worse, to think critically about where we’re all headed as a society. In these conditions, people don’t reflect, they just survive until the next weekend. (Perfect ground for some terrible political decisions by the way.)
For Aristotle, deep thinking, philosophy, and politics were the highest forms of human life. If work helped you get there, great. If it was just a grind? What’s the point?
But here’s where we (rightfully) disagree with Aristotle: his idea that some people (slaves and laborers) existed purely to sustain society, while the elite focused on intellectual work.
I know, you’re frowning already. That idea feels outdated, absurd, even disturbing. But before we pat ourselves on the back for being so evolved, are we really that different?
We still divide and value work differently:
White-collar (knowledge work) = prestige.
Blue-collar (physical work) = less status.
Financial freedom = the ultimate goal (so we can finally stop working).
Maybe Aristotle’s ideas aren’t so anachronistic after all. Maybe we’re still playing by the same rules, we’ve just changed the language.
From Greece and Lion King to High School
My mother opened the door to my curiosity about philosophy. She’d take Plato’s Cave and turn it into an everyday life lesson: “See? It’s like watching the shadows and thinking that’s all there is.”
So I grew up thinking of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle as friendly companions, just as familiar as Pocahontas or The Lion King.
Then high school hit. And I discovered Durkheim.
Unlike Aristotle, Durkheim wasn’t thinking about individual happiness, he was thinking about society. And what stuck with me was his idea of anomie: the feeling of disconnection and instability that comes when rapid change disrupts our sense of purpose and community.
When I think about how work works and its consequences on people, it’s Durkheim, not Aristotle, that I turn to first.
Why Durkheim Matters Today
Durkheim was the first to see work as fundamental to social cohesion and identity.
Before him:
Locke saw work as a means to justifiable wealth.
Marx saw work as a source of alienation under capitalism.
For Locke, work was an economic tool.
For Marx, work was a political battleground.
But for Durkheim? Work was the glue that held society together.
In traditional communities, people were bonded because they lived similar lives. In modern societies, that connection shifts:
A baker, a factory worker, and an engineer may not understand each other’s jobs, but they depend on one another to survive.
And yet, what are we seeing today? Political leaders pushing for protectionism and dismantling global economic ties, while the rest of the world panics because everything is interconnected. There’s no product or service that gets shipped without people or parts being sourced from different parts of the world.
Maybe we really are connected the way Durkheim proposed.
Anomie: The Feeling You Can’t Shake
I read Substack posts every day: people searching for purpose, meaning, a reason to get up in the morning. Some move across the world, sell everything and buy sailboats. Others (hi, me 👋) spend their evenings writing posts and chatting with an AI, trying to make sense of it all.
You feel me, right? Durkheim does.
His argument? We all need a higher purpose to find meaning in life.
In traditional societies, religion provided that. It gave people a moral structure, a place in the world. But as religion took a back seat, what filled the void?
📌 Work.
Because work gives us identity, structure, and a role in society.
So what happens when work stops doing that? When jobs feel meaningless, unstable, or disconnected? When the world changes too fast for us to keep up?
💥 Anomie. A deep, collective feeling of disconnection.
We saw this happen with the Industrial Revolution:
🔹 People moved from villages to cities.
🔹 Extended families broke apart.
🔹 Factory work became isolating, repetitive, and meaningless.
The result? Anxiety, depression, social instability.
And here’s the kicker: We’re going through another seismic shift in work right now.
Why We’re All Feeling Anomic in 2025
🔹 Work No Longer Provides Meaning
Many jobs feel disconnected from real value (corporate bureaucracy, “bullshit jobs”).
People don’t see a clear purpose in what they do.
🔹 Digital Life Replaced Real Communities
We’re connected online but lonelier than ever.
Social media replaces deep relationships with surface-level interactions.
🔹 Traditions & Institutions Are Fading
Religion, extended families, stable career paths—all used to provide direction.
Now, people have to create their own meaning, which sounds freeing but can feel overwhelming.
🔹 The Hustle Culture Trap
Capitalism tells us work = worth—but that’s not actually fulfilling for most people.
People chase money, productivity, and success—then wonder why it feels empty.
And when they finally reach the milestone they were striving for? They look back and question why they started in the first place.
So... What Now?
Okay, I won’t leave you on a depressing note. Here’s what Durkheim would suggest, with a modern twist (mine 🤓):
✅ Community: You don’t need a whole village, but you do need friends who get you. Or at least people you share an interest with.
✅ Look for Meaning Beyond Work: Find something bigger than yourself, whether it’s writing, volunteering, or creating something that feels fulfilling.
✅ Redefine Success: Is it really about the money in your bank account or your LinkedIn title? Probably not. Figure out what success actually means to you, before you waste time chasing the wrong thing.
Maybe It’s Not Us. Maybe It’s Society.
Our parents found their work meaningful. We just find it meaningless.
Maybe it’s not because we’re soft, lazy, or delusional.
Maybe society is structurally making us feel lost.
So no, you don’t need another self-help book.
You don’t need a meditation retreat or a guru’s advice.
You just need:
✅ A solid group of friends.
✅ To do more of what energizes you.
✅ To be bold enough to define success on your own terms.
The rest of society will eventually catch up. You’re just ahead of the curve.
Being introduced to philosophy at such a young age is a game changer and now you're ahead of the curve! :)
With globalization, it should have been obvious how interconnected and dependent we are on each other - everything that we see, own or use is the result of collective effort.
And yet, this fixation on hyper individualism blinds us from seeing the obvious. Isolation, loneliness, feeling a lack of meaning and purpose in what we do are merely symptoms of this sickness.
We are a collective, meant for collaboration. Not just reduced to competiting with each other, fighting for scraps at the expense of others.
Good job for connecting it all nicely. I enjoyed reading and learning from it.
Thanks!