[The World on the Page] Let’s Defeat Meaningless Fake Work

Why do we work so much? It is a question everyone keeps buried in their hearts. People work themselves to death but feel little pride, and the more passion they put in, the more they suffer from emptiness. Few people do not feel the sensation of work slipping through their fingers like sand, the anxiety as if labor is gnawing at the heart of life, or the fear that they are wasting their lives on pointless tasks. Nietzsche said, “It is not pain itself but the meaninglessness of pain that has been the curse bestowed upon humanity.”

If there is meaning, no matter how hard it is, one can endure it willingly. Conversely, boring and meaningless work is unbearable even for a moment. When meaning accumulates as emptiness in the heart, humans become ill. The collapse of self-esteem and the feeling of having one’s soul stolen invite the abyss of depression. This is because work is connected to the foundation of our lives. Work is not just a way to earn money but a way to prove human freedom and confirm the independence of the self. When work loses its meaning, everything is lost.

According to Danish anthropologist Dennis Nørmark and philosopher Anders Fogh Jensen’s book Fake Work (Jaum & Mo-eum), most labor in modern society is close to a “meaningless mirage.” There are too many futile tasks in our workplaces that leave no joy or fulfillment. Forced projects that no one wants to do but must be taken on, meetings where people gather just to confirm facts everyone already knows, and tasks that cannot be explained meaningfully to others or understood even when heard abound.

Danish doctors must ask 142 questions per patient to record in the healthcare system. Filling out surveys one by one leaves insufficient time for patient treatment. Teachers are evaluated more on how diligently they write reports for the education office than on how much attention they paid to educating children in the classroom. Similar situations are common in other fields, such as staying up nights to prepare materials that no one reads.

Despite working so much, these people are essentially not working at all. Because of this, cries of “Please, just let me work!” erupt here and there. The authors call these empty tasks “fake work.” Fake work wastes the time and energy given to a society and drives an individual’s life toward catastrophic and existential waste. The result is nihilism, a grand dance of meaninglessness.

In the 1930s, few spoke of a future like today’s. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright predicted that in the future, work and private life would be strictly separated, workers would flock to the city three days a week at 10 a.m., leave by 4 p.m., tend gardens, enjoy life, and commune with nature. Economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that by 2030, the average workweek would be 15 hours. Philosopher Bertrand Russell proposed reducing daily work hours to four, praising a life that enjoys and creates a more splendid life and nobler culture.

Their future has become our present. Yet, we live working so much that we suffer from “burnout syndrome.” Not only do we spend long hours at work doing seemingly meaningless tasks, but we often bring work home as well. This is due to fake work.

Fake work emerged in earnest as capitalism and industrial society combined. According to Max Weber, capitalists regarded leisure as worthless and laziness as the root of evil. They measured labor by time and paid wages accordingly, making labor time the central principle of the workplace rather than work performance. This inevitably leads to more people working just to fill time.

For example, what should one do if they finish their tasks early because they are more capable than others? Few people tell their superiors that their work is done; instead, they find other tasks or busy themselves with unnecessary activities. Since wages are paid by labor time, once the work is done, neither wages nor people are needed. This is why “Parkinson’s Law” dominates workplaces. According to British historian Cyril Parkinson, “Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.” If 10 hours are given for a task, most people use all 10 hours. But if 25 hours are given for the same task, surprisingly, it takes 25 hours.

People never work ahead of time. No one wants to be surplus labor, so they work as slowly as possible until the work hours are filled. Even without work, they pile papers on their desks to look busy, chat with colleagues, or prolong meetings. To maintain the feeling of “I am not surplus” and preserve self-esteem, they start unnecessary paperwork. This is fake work.

Those engaged in fake work feel busy without actually feeling like they are working. They destroy their own sense of fulfillment and suffer from wounded morality and self-esteem. Fake work makes people mentally and physically ill and turns organizations into bureaucracies producing non-work work. To escape “fake work,” work must be sufficiently reduced and leisure guaranteed.

Danish data company IIH Nordic applied “Parkinson’s Law” in reverse. Noting that reducing the time needed for tasks leads to finishing work within limited time, they introduced a four-day workweek, increased autonomy by not answering emails or calls, focusing on work, and allowing employees to rest as they see fit. Remarkably, after implementing the system, company sales surged, operating profits increased, employee sick leave dropped by 50%, and stress levels fell to their lowest.

Netflix eliminated most on-site HR personnel. If good employees are hired from the start, 97% of them work properly without separate management staff. Complex HR regulations consume time and money because of the 3% of employees who might cause problems.

People naturally do “useful, meaningful, and real work” if guaranteed to do so. Unnecessary management or control is not needed. Reducing unnecessary reports, shortening meeting times, and allowing people to leave work once tasks are done without worrying about others, spending time with loved ones, and studying for self-improvement are even better when combined with individual effort. For modern people today, nothing is more important than defeating “fake work” and regaining the joy of work and the meaning of life.

Jang Eun-su, Literary Critic