Reclaiming Self-Worth Beyond Work: Healing from Capitalism’s Wounds
The most toxic part of capitalistic society is that often not only our society but we ourselves equate our self-worth with our job title or employment status.
I live in the wealthiest part of America, Silicon Valley, with one of the widest wealth gaps in the country, if not the world. I work with many Asian Americans who happen to be in high-earning tech careers, who also often experience layoffs. The idea of someone going from an inflated sense of self to the absolute bottom of their self-worth is not foreign to me, not only because my clients have experienced it, but because I have also experienced it.
The last couple of years, filled with layoffs and economic downturns, have taught me a lot about what many Asian Americans and other individuals experience when we live in a capitalistic society: we equate our worth to our productivity. Back in the 1970s, when layoffs were seldom, it might not have been so damaging for people to attach their identity and their self-worth to their employment. In 2025? Not so much.
I have a neighbor who has gone through 3 layoffs since 2020. I have experienced 3 layoffs in the same span. Many of my friends and my clients have experienced it too. It has become commonplace for us to move from job to job, where we never get to find security in our jobs anymore, and we go from making a comfortable 6-figure salary to being on the verge of homelessness in a matter of a day.
If our job/career is this fragile, how can we base our identity and self-worth on an ever-changing foundation? When you base your whole life, your identity, and your self-worth on a foundation made of sand, you are bound to experience a collapse of your castle, your pride, self-worth, and your identity.
At some point, we have to ask: what remains when the title is gone?
For many of us, the layoffs, the rejections, and the endless pressure to “stay relevant” have stripped away not only our income but our identity. It’s not just the loss of a paycheck that hurts. It’s the loss of belonging, the fear that without our job, we no longer matter.
But that’s the lie capitalism has sold us. That our worth is a number, a title, or a line on a résumé.
When I sit with clients who are rebuilding their lives after being laid off, I don’t just see people without jobs. I see people who are rediscovering who they are when there’s no company logo attached to their name. I see people learning that self-worth is not something to be earned. It’s something to be remembered.
Our worth comes from within. From the quiet moments when we choose to rest instead of hustle. From the relationships that remind us we are loved even when we are not producing. It takes courage to slow down and heal the parts of us that believed we were only valuable when we were useful.
Healing from capitalism’s wounds doesn’t mean rejecting ambition or success. It means learning to hold them lightly. It means understanding that a career can be a vehicle for expression, not a verdict on your value.
Because when your sense of worth comes from within, from knowing who you are beyond the roles you play, no layoff, no rejection, and no performance review can take that away.
And maybe that’s the quiet rebellion we all need right now: to remember that we were already worthy before we ever worked a single day.
I hope you all feel peace from within
Dr. Wonbin