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b'The compulsion to be happy at work \\u201cis always a demand for emotional work from the worker,\\u201d writes Sarah Jaffe. \\u201cWork, after all, has no feelings. Capitalism cannot love. This new work ethic, in which work is expected to give us something like self-actualization, cannot help but fail.\\u201d\\n\\nJaffe is a Type Media Center reporting fellow, a co-host of the podcast \\u201cBelabored\\u201d and the author of \\u201cWork Won\\u2019t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted and Alone.\\u201d Many of us, especially Gen Zers and millennials, have grown up with the idea that work should be more than just a way to make a living; it\\u2019s a vocation, a calling, a source of meaning and fulfillment. But for Jaffe, that idea is a scam, a con, a false promise. It prevents us from seeing work for what it really is: a power struggle over our time, our labor and our livelihoods.\\n\\nSo this is a conversation about the dissonance between our expectations of what work can offer our lives and the reality of what our jobs and careers are capable of delivering; about whether work can ever really love us back. But there\\u2019s a bigger picture here, too. Workers are quitting their jobs in record numbers. Strikes are taking place across the country. In her role as a labor reporter, Jaffe has spent much of the past year interviewing workers across the country \\u2014 spanning industries from retail to health care to tech \\u2014 giving her insight into the shift in attitudes behind this uproar in the labor market. So that\\u2019s where we begin: Why are so many Americans radically rethinking work?\\n\\nWe also discuss the rise of corporate virtue signaling, the threat that American consumerism poses for worker power, how the decline of religion could be contributing to the veneration of careers, why the term \\u201cburnout\\u201d doesn\\u2019t go far enough in describing the problems of modern work and how the logic of capitalism has shaped our notions of human value and self-worth.\\n\\nMentioned:\\n\\n\\u201cPhysicians aren\\u2019t \\u2018burning out.\\u2019 They\\u2019re suffering from moral injury\\u201d by Wendy Dean and Simon Talbot \\n\\n\\u201cWorkism Is Making Americans Miserable\\u201d by Derek Thompson\\n\\n"Optimal Experience in Work and Leisure" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Judith LeFevre\\n\\nUndoing The Demos by Wendy Brown\\n\\nDirty Work by Eyal Press\\n\\nBook Recommendations:\\n\\nLost in Work by Amelia Horgan\\n\\nFarewell to the Factory by Ruth Milkman\\n\\nConfessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg\\n\\nThis episode is guest hosted by Rog\\xe9 Karma, the staff editor for \\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show.\\u201d Rog\\xe9 has been with the show since July 2019, when it was based at Vox. He works closely with Ezra on everything related to the show, from editing to interview prep to guest selection. At Vox, he also wrote stories and conducted interviews on topics ranging from policing and racial justice to democracy reform and the coronavirus.\\n\\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\\n\\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of "The Ezra Klein Show" at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\\n\\n\\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld and Rog\\xe9 Karma; fact-checking by Michelle Harris; original music by Isaac Jones; mixing by Jeff Geld, audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin.'