Work Pray Code, Carolyn Chen
Work Pray Code, Carolyn Chen
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Work Pray Code
When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley

Author: Carolyn Chen

Narrator: Jennifer Lim

Unabridged: 9 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/08/2022

Synopsis

This audiobook narrated by Jennifer Lim explores how tech giants are reshaping spirituality to serve their religion of peak productivity Silicon Valley is known for its lavish perks, intense work culture, and spiritual gurus. Work Pray Code explores how tech companies are bringing religion into the workplace in ways that are replacing traditional places of worship, blurring the line between work and religion and transforming the very nature of spiritual experience in modern life. Over the past forty years, highly skilled workers have been devoting more time and energy to their jobs than ever before. They are also leaving churches, synagogues, and temples in droves—but they have not abandoned religion. Carolyn Chen spent more than five years in Silicon Valley, conducting a wealth of in-depth interviews and gaining unprecedented access to the best and brightest of the tech world. The result is a penetrating account of how work now satisfies workers' needs for belonging, identity, purpose, and transcendence that religion once met. Chen argues that tech firms are offering spiritual care such as Buddhist-inspired mindfulness practices to make their employees more productive, but that our religious traditions, communities, and public sphere are paying the price. We all want our jobs to be meaningful and fulfilling. Work Pray Code reveals what can happen when work becomes religion, and when the workplace becomes the institution that shapes our souls.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Bob on May 11, 2022

Summary: A sociologist studies how Silicon Valley tech firms bring religion into the workplace, replacing traditional religious institutions, blurring the line of work and religion. I’ll just say it up front. Anyone who cares about the future of work needs to read this book. Carolyn Chen, a sociologi......more

Goodreads review by Lorin on June 01, 2022

When I worked as a professor at the University of Nebraska—Lincoln, after being there for a few months, during a conversation with the chair of the computer science department he asked me “have you found a church community yet?” I had not. I had, however, found a synagogue. The choice wasn’t difficu......more

Goodreads review by Neal on August 12, 2023

The thesis is that, for Silicon Valley tech employees, work has become the main source of meaning, crowding out traditional religions, community, and even family. Tech companies provide transport, food, wellness and self-actualization, thereby channelling more and more of their employees' effort. The......more

Goodreads review by Chris on July 11, 2022

This book quickly became one of my favorites of 2022. I’ve been really interested in sociology, and Carolyn Chen killed it with this book discussing how work has become the new religion. She specifically focuses on tech companies in Silicon Valley, but what she discusses is widespread, especially as......more

Goodreads review by minty malika on March 21, 2023

It was a very interesting read. Chen is locked and loaded with great supporting arguments in each chapter - she organizes the book by making an argument in each chapter and throwing in a variety of anecdotes, case studies, and research. For example, in the first chapter she makes the case that a lot......more

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