Аннотация:The article discusses the identification of contemporary ideas about the characteristics of labor, which are valuable from the point of view of common consciousness. The theoretical analysis allows defining the trends that, on the one hand, characterize the consumer society and its special type - glam capitalism, on the other hand, show the virtualization of society and the digitalization of life as the modern stage of its development. The identified trends radically change the economic life of society and labor relations, turning labor into a commodity. Such new characteristics of labor as mobility, flexibility, universality of competencies, the threat of robotization and the demand for highly qualified specialists led to changes in the value ideas about labor. Money, time management and the satisfaction of personal interests has become the main values of labor. These values turn into one - benefit, which is difficult to combine with the value of self-expression and self-realization of the individual in the process of work. Nowadays, a person faces the dilemma either to choose a profession that requires a lot of effort to master and gives hope for self-development, management of time, i.e., for personal freedom, or to search for a job that does not require any effort, takes away personal freedom, but provides income sufficient to acquire the values of the consumer society.