Have you ever heard the way some companies refer to their work, describing it in grandiose terms that are almost religious? I felt this way a little bit back in my days at Amex. There was a strong culture related to how people were treated, whether customers or employees, and doing the right thing, not only legally, but also morally. I’m not saying everyone always lived up to those ideals, but the ideals were strong, heart-felt, and attractive to us as employees and leaders. We felt good about the work we were doing. We felt like it was something positive.

In a leadership training that was making the rounds, the story was told of a janitor working for NASA. When asked what his purpose was, he said he was putting a man on the moon. In reality, he was cleaning toilets for engineers, but in theory, NASA’s mission was shared by all who supported it in any way. The mission was always seen as larger than any one individual.

Vocational awe is a term coined by Fobazi Ettarh to describe the belief that a profession is inherently noble, sacred, or morally pure — and therefore beyond critique. She originally applied it to librarianship, but the concept has since been extended to tech, education, nonprofits, medicine, startups, and mission-driven companies.

This concept of purpose in our work has continued to rise in importance. In many Silicon Valley companies, their mission and purpose statements are ratcheted up from the principles we espoused in my career. They will claim things like that they are building the future, or changing the world, or redesigning all human interactions. Combine that with the fact that many employees from Millenials onward demand that their companies be “admirable” or moral actors in the world, a tall order given that they also have to succeed in a cutthroat capitalist environment. Older generations may have felt that doing important work was a plus, but were less invested in the idea that their work was significant. I once joked to a colleague that I kept having the suspicion that the high-stakes project we’d been working on for the past year was something that in 5 years nobody would care about. He raised an eyebrow and said, “Five years? Try five months.” There’s always the next new thing.

Some of you may recall the episode of Lost in which Desmond, living in a bunker in the jungle, has to continually input a series of numbers into a computer because he believes (as his predecessor did) that if he doesn’t input the numbers correctly on time a huge disaster will occur. As viewers we watched and wondered–would there be a huge disaster or was his task as meaningless as it looked? What if he, like his predecessor, just walked away?

Let’s unpack how “vocational awe” functions — and then compare it to how it works in religion.

Companies or organizations often frame work tasks in grandiose terms like:

  • Changing the world
  • Saving democracy
  • Connecting humanity
  • Making the planet sustainable
  • Reinventing the future

Psychologically, this shifts employment from transactional labor to a moral calling. Employees feel more motivated to perform tasks, including mundane or seemingly meaningless tasks.

If the mission is considered sacrosanct, that means that employees who question it or who criticize the tasks are seen as disloyal. Employees then internalize that criticism:

  • “If I’m struggling, it’s because I’m not committed enough.”
  • “If leadership makes mistakes, the mission is still pure.”
  • “Burnout proves how dedicated I am.”
  • “If I leave, I’m leaving the higher purpose.”

Saying no to the company, if the employee buys into the mission, is a selfish act. Companies often exploit this to monopolize employees’ time, identity and social life. Putting in extra time and effort is required if you believe in the mission, even if the specific task is actually quite meaningless.

I used to say that for many people, Amex worked like church. We shared values. Our colleagues were our social circle. We spoke in the Amex dialect and jargon. Our office culture drove how we lived our lives. And let me reiterate, Amex was nowhere near these Silicon Valley companies in terms of vocational awe. Companies operating this way also use crisis framing to increase commitment and to override employee boundary-setting. Speaking of the work in urgent terms makes it harder for people to leave or just phone it in.

Religions operate using this same framework. A church’s mission is stated in moral terms:

  • Doing God’s work
  • Saving souls
  • Earning salvation
  • Building the kingdom
  • Fighting evil

Unlike a company, the stakes are felt as “eternal.”

Some of these familiar methods that religions have used for millenia are being used more often by “mission-driven” companies.

  • Ritualized meetings
  • Founder mythology
  • Moral storytelling
  • Community immersion
  • Conversion-style recruitment and onboarding

Sociologists have been increasingly observing that Silicon Valley culture functions quasi-religiously. Political parties are also using these types of framing to increase polarization and commitment through tribalism as well as through meaning-making. When your moral worth is tied to any system (politics, employment, or a church), that system exerts a lot of control over you and makes boundary-setting difficult.

So how do you avoid psychological manipulation through vocational awe? Even if the work is important, pay attention when the noble goals are used as an excuse for:

  • low pay
  • chronic overwork
  • understaffing
  • emotional exhaustion
  • boundary-crossing by leaders
  • excessive self-sacrifice or even harm

When leaders reframe your boundary setting as selfishness, that’s a potential red flag. When leadership doesn’t operate under the same expectations of self-sacrifice, that’s another red flag. Consider these questions:

  • Would the mission survive if employees / members had healthy boundaries?
  • Are sacrifices voluntary or culturally coerced?
  • Do leaders benefit more from the mission narrative than workers do?

I imagine the parallels to religion, particularly a high-demand religion, are pretty obvious. If not, just go back and re-read all of that and compare to your experience as a church member.

  • Have you ever realized that something you thought was very important work was actually not all that valuable (or valued)?
  • Have you experienced this shift toward vocational awe in your work life or elsewhere?
  • Have you seen these tactics used at church? When did it become apparent to you?
  • What has happened when you set clear boundaries rather than caving to mission-related pressure?

Discuss.