Today, many of the most high-status jobs for the well-educated make a virtue of intensity and commitment. Investment banking boasts 80-hour work weeks; Teach for America’s emotional crucible results in a high burnout rate; and jobs in the political sector spawn articles like Anne-Marie Slaughter’s cri de coeur. Have a Type A personality? These jobs are ready to push you to (or past) your limit, and isn’t that what excellence is all about?
There’s a word for people who turn over their entire waking life to one cause, and willingly sacrifice the possibility of a family for the opportunity to serve: monks (or, more archaically, oblates). Just like the driven twenty-somethings of Rosin’s article, monks and nuns have made a commitment so total that it precludes marriage. But in the case of vowed religious, the form of their service is meant to be elevating, not just useful. I seldom hear people claim that spreadsheets are good for the soul. Even for people doing high intensity work for the public good (the teachers, the social workers, the public interest lawyers, etc.), the form of their work may still be deadening...He and I had a somewhat different take on this - Bob was, first, slightly miffed as he had come up with the same comparison a few years ago in a conversation about "work/life balance" with his former boss (and TFA alum!), but mainly his reaction was that it's time for people (ie. his co-workers) to be honest about these choices and sacrifices and quit whining!
My reaction came from having dropped out of a profession and seeing the equal confusion that surrounds motherhood. Not only do we confuse careers with vocations, but we confuse vocations with careers. Careers are about productivity, specialization, and achievement. But vocations are about faithfulness, particularity, and suffering.
