

The scam isn’t ‘hard work’
The scam is the ‘a job gives you(r life) purpose’ narrative.
Nope, times a thousand. Meaningful relationships, having realistic (but still challenging) goals, self-expression, responsibility for the well-being of others and engaging in meaningful initiatives, among many others, do.
There are now studies (I/you need to look up the references since I’m now in a hurry) which posit that, especially in bigger organisations, 80% of the work gets done by 20% of non-managing individuals - because of exactly this phenomenon.