But how you react to this time famine might depend on your religion and your sex. In an experiment, Professor Sanchez-Burks randomly assigned people to dress and act professionally or casually, and then tracked their mimicry of a specific interpersonal cue. When Protestant men dressed professionally and solved a business case, they mimicked this social cue at half the rate of those who wore Hawaiian garb and generated vacation ideas. The attire and task had no impact on women and non-Protestant men: They caught the cues regardless of what they were wearing and doing.

The sociologist Max Weber classically argued that the Protestant Reformation had a peculiar effect on American work. At the dawn of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther preached that hard work in any occupation was a meaningful duty — a calling from God. John Calvin took this idea a step further, arguing that people should avoid socializing while working, as attention to relationships and emotions would distract them from productively fulfilling God’s will. Over the generations, these Calvinist teachings influenced Protestants, who came to view social considerations as inappropriate and inefficient in the workplace. Protestant men were especially susceptible, as they were expected and socialized to focus on productivity. For much of the 20th century, American workplaces were largely designed by Protestant men.

Yet in recent years, America has become noticeably less Protestant, dropping from roughly 70 percent in the 1950s to 57 percent in 1985, 49 percent in 2005, and 37 percent last year, according to Gallup. The proportion of Protestant chief executives has declined, too. Why, then, does the Protestant ethic persist?

A generational shift has reinforced the transactional mind-set in American workplaces, regardless of sex and religion. Although the evidence is strong that different generations generally want similar things out of work, the value placed on leisure time has increased steadily. When the psychologist Jean M. Twenge led an analysis of work preference surveys completed by high school seniors in 1976, 1991 and 2006, 17 percent of baby boomers strongly valued more than two weeks of vacation time, compared with 25 percent of Generation X and 31 percent of millennials.

When we see our jobs primarily as a means to leisure, it’s easy to convince ourselves that efficiency should reign supreme at work so we have time for friendships outside work.

BUT we may be underestimating the impact of workplace friendships on our happiness — and our effectiveness. Jobs are more satisfying when they provide opportunities to form friendships. Research shows that groups of friends outperform groups of acquaintances in both decision making and effort tasks.