Seeking immortality: an empirical exploration of the significance of work for the non-religious

This paper draws on in-depth interviews to explore whether work is metaphysically meaningful to ‘Nones’: those who do not have faith in religious traditions or spiritual movements. In particular, it asks how this meaning is a reflection of their beliefs, and why work is metaphysically meaningful if they deny religious and/or spiritual conceptualisations of existence. It argues that although the beliefs held by ‘Nones’ vary considerably, work remains an inherently metaphysical endeavour that provides a means of mediating, alleviating or obscuring their unresolved existential anxieties provoked by finitude. These arguments are theoretically framed through Becker’s notion of ‘symbolic immortality’ (1973) to suggest that regardless of the relationship ‘Nones’ have with finitude, work enables ‘Nones’ to reimagine their existence as infinite. In doing so, it considers the ethicality of ‘life-affirming’ contemporary managerial approaches and corporate cultures that sustain fantasies of symbolic immortality.