Carolyn Chen is a sociologist and UC Berkeley professor who researches faith, race and ethnicity. Her new guide, Function Pray Code: When Function Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley, features in-depth interviews with staff members and companies to examine how spirituality begets productivity in the world’s tech hub.
As a professor of faith, what sparked your curiosity in Silicon Valley?
I’ve examined Taiwanese immigrant evangelicals, evangelical Christians, Buddhists in their communities, but I assume any person who lives in a western industrialised state, in a metropolitan location, is aware of that faith is on the decrease in conditions of spiritual affiliation and spiritual participation. To me, it felt as if there was one thing missing if I was only capturing men and women who self-detect as spiritual. How do we see religion operating in the planet? What is the modern manifestation of religion? I was genuinely intrigued in hunting at the presence of faith in secular spaces.
Which took you to yoga studios and what did you master when you spoke to secular folks applying this non secular follow?
I seen that work was seriously popular in people’s narratives and in their biographies. When I would inquire men and women: “So why do you practise yoga, when do you practise yoga?” it typically centred on perform. Men and women would say: “Well, I practise yoga for the reason that, just after a long working day, I come to feel like I will need worry aid.” But there was also a further line: “Yoga definitely can help to restore me so that I can come to be a greater X” – and in this article you could fill in the blank – a much better nurse, a much better engineer, a greater accountant or lawyer. It grew to become apparent to me that operate was really religion in their life – that operate was what they ended up ready to submit and surrender and sacrifice for. And, if anything, yoga was just a therapeutic ancillary – it was to aid this other point that they have been, you could say, worshipping.
So it grew to become very clear to me in those interviews that I was looking in the erroneous position. Since I was searching at something that had religious origins, which is yoga, but what was it that they were truly worshipping, what was basically sacred in their life? It was not yoga. Yoga was supporting them worship their work.
And your e book chronicles how Silicon Valley CEOs use this to their advantage – first, featuring yoga classes at tech headquarters, and now encouraging Buddhist procedures these types of as mindfulness and meditation. Why have the latter taken above?
Yoga received changed by meditation and mindfulness, because there are countless numbers of reports on [the benefits of] meditation and mindfulness – there’s a full cottage sector. But, as I publish about in the reserve, a whole lot of the reports have been done in managed labs, so they could possibly not automatically be applicable in a office location. And it’s not even crystal clear what mindfulness is when it is employed in these secular areas. I just felt like these organizations had been normally seeking for the new next significant point, an simple thing. It essential to be easy and rapid to optimise their workers’ efficiency.
Which is fundamentally the crux of your book – tech giants are utilizing religious techniques to optimise productivity and spiritual ideas (“missions”, “origin stories”, “leaders”) to make individuals dedicate their lives to operate. But why now? Why optimise staff members in this way, of all means?
It’s portion of a longer development and more substantial shifts in the economic climate – the increase of the awareness overall economy and a change from an industrial to a put up-industrial financial system. In an industrial economic climate, the way that you might enhance your base line is usually by way of the exploitation of all-natural assets. In a expertise overall economy, the most essential asset is the know-how and expertise of your labour drive. How do you grow that? You can raise a person’s worth by educating them, but you could also increase their generation, increase their price, by increasing their spirit. How do you seize that spiritual aspect of them, that psychological aspect of them, so that they can spend completely into the workforce? A whole lot of the phrases that we use now to describe get the job done, this kind of as “passion” or bringing your “whole self” to work, get at this idea of how you control labour nowadays in a information economy it is not just automatically the techniques of the human employee, it is also that religious aspect, far too.
In practice, this implies firms deliver workers with free balanced meals, existence coaches, wellness centres… When reading through, I kind of assumed, “That seems terrific.” How do you encourage people to obstacle that? What are the drawbacks of what you call company maternalism?
1st, permit me just say that I felt the same way. Because what the tech corporation presents is the most economical answer – and productive is the most important word listed here – to furnishing a significant and fulfilling life. When I was paying time there, I thought, “I would be a a great deal improved scholar, trainer, mom, even, if I were right here, simply because the corporation would choose treatment of all these items.” So I struggled with that incredibly very same concern that you are inquiring.
But there are negatives to it that I saw as a sociologist. I talked about in the e-book how the place of work acts as this huge magnet that appeals to the time, power and devotion of a local community. But what occurs to other establishments? What transpires to the family, to religion communities, to colleges, even modest organizations, arts organisations, neighbourhood associations? In the American model, we see these civic institutions as basically significant to preserving our democracy. All these other institutions start to develop smaller sized and scaled-down, simply because you have this alpha establishment which is attracting all the things.
Appropriate – and you mentioned how janitors and caterers do not get the similar perks as engineers, and how the ethical dynamics of spirituality are entirely dropped. Some of the benefits on give are eyebrow-elevating: I was stunned to examine about Vijay, an engineer who was essentially offered a relationship coach by his employer. What was the most stunning moment for you in your reporting?
This one particular HR person stated: “Well, we can’t get our personnel to perform 24/7 until we give them versatility.” And when she stated that, a lightbulb went on in my head. We truly need to have to imagine about this as we’re relocating to a more hybrid design. Staff are pushing in the direction of flexibility, but what can be a consequence of that? It can be that you function 24/7.
Prior to I opened the guide, I assumed it would mainly be about the cult worship of individuals such as Steve Positions. It is much more challenging than that. Who is the God in your equation? What is the determine of worship?
Steve Careers is like a saint – there is this hagiography, there is a cult of Steve Careers and folks begun practising meditation simply because of him. But it’s in essence worshipping a process. It’s this perception that work is likely to preserve you, it’s the factor that is going to give you this means and function and, in a feeling, immortality.
