The year the word “meritocracy” was coined. It was satire. Michael Young invented it to warn against a society that sorted people by test scores. The warning became the aspiration.
Humans have existed for at least 300,000 years. For nearly all of that time, they worked. They made tools, tracked animals, raised children, and told stories. Work was not a place they went to or a role they occupied. It was simply what living looked like.
Everything we treat as permanent about professional life, the career ladder, the annual review, the job description, the retirement plan, is roughly 150 years old.
The Japanese word nariwai (生業) combines the characters for life and work as one undivided concept. English does not have that word. Nariway is the reason it exists now.