Benedict and the Careerist

Today, many people find their work fascinating and absorbing in a way Benedict could not have imagined. The Careerist's work is not only professionally fulfilling, but the jobsite now frequently provides a ready source of friends and a culture of belonging that has largely disappeared in other arenas of life. "It even includes non-work categories. And the extent to which we have a "fulfilling career is the extent to which we may regard ourselves as successful." (Your Work Matters to God, Sherman and Hendricks, pg. 28). In short, work has now become the major source of identity and belonging for vast numbers of people. But this very development has created a crisis of meaning for today's secular workers.

The corporate culture is often shallow and mindless. New management techniques for improving employee morale are soon understood as elaborate manipulations to boost profits, and even line workers engaged in technical knowledge-related jobs often labor anonymously at their cubicles like so many faceless androids. The popular comic strip Dilbert cleverly captures the absurdity and cynicism of today's workplace, creating a cult following in the process. Scott Adams, the creator of the strip is convinced that the 21st century will be characterized by technical breakthroughs that will permit people to act stupid and lazy with heretofore unimagined creativity.

Expanded technology and global connectivity will certainly provide workers greater opportunities and creative possibilities, but they will certainly not change human nature or provide answers to the ultimate questions of meaning that give us the why behind the how. This is a vocational crisis at heart. We don't know how to balance our work, because we don't know who we are called to be. It is not surprising then, that in a world changing too rapidly to replace the spiritual capital which propelled the changes to begin with, many are exploring ancient religions and traditions in an attempt to fill the spiritual void created by such change.