Productivity is a Protestant value (labour is the way to a good life and thus God). I find that, even though you and I are probably no longer religious, such values have huge staying power.
I for one accept that this value deserves a bunch of footnotes. You are very right: Labour amd our society is something to recover from. We (from this cultural zone at least) should start to accept we don't have to be temporarily embarrased hard workers anymore. Hard work is outdated and overrated, it's time we stop seeing this life as a means to get into heaven, or at least have values that boil down to that, but as a goal in its own right.
Working hard is valued, and should be pursued for its own value. Asking for compensation is crass and devalues your effort. Being productive without suffering or straining is not valued. It is seen as "cheating" and whatever is produced is seen as inherently less valuable. These are problematic perspectives that are causing us social problems and will continue to do so until there is a social re-evaluation of things. Until then... burnout for everybody!
Athletes and (famous) actors beat them, but they barely constitute a class.
That is, getting paid a certain salary is some sort of statement that you deserve it.
You'd be surprised.
And let's not even go into the ancient Greeks, and Romans, where "working hard" was for the lesser classes (not necessarily slaves), and it was not considered a great virtue. As Nietchze noted, nobility and honor were attached solely to "otium and bellum" (leisure and war).
Interestingly, the result is that you end up with an organization full of people with successful careers, including positions of power. As they are also quite secretive, this generates colourful conspiracy theories.
It is absolutely not some kind of eternal human nature common to us all to value hard work, and it is not even an emergent phenomenon in many cultures - until, as I said, they come under the sway of capital.
This. Religion is basically a convenient vehicle for "lifestyle", "ethics" and "ideology", encoded in stories, symbols, and imperatives.
(Which is also why modern "atheist" phenomena like soviet communism or Californian ideology are themselves religious in nature).
I'll do you one better - it propagated to my, firmly catholic, country and apparently it's here to stay even though no one ever associated it with religion.
We're now among some of the most overworked nations in Europe.
It's so frustrating that many people here work themselves to death, using up rest of their time for the time-sinks called children.
After that they have no time left for participating in the civil society, contribute to open source or otherwise make impact in their community.
Like they say: you're not your job, or: you're not your code, maybe we should say: you're not your children. They are important, but not everything.