In times of industrialization, work has become the most important part of life. Success in one’s career is associated not only with a high income and material prosperity but also with social status and class affiliation. This differs from the understanding of work in earlier societies. Looking at the social perception of work from a sociohistorical perspective, it is striking that the assessment of the social significance of work in other times differs from the ideas we are familiar with today. A look at other eras shows that the modern understanding of work is the result of a long development process in which work was gradually destigmatized. While work was seen as a burden of the lower classes in ancient and medieval societies, since the nineteenth century at the latest, work has been attributed with bourgeois virtues that make work and economic success an expression of a felicitous life. The chapter outlines these developments in the social perception of work from ancient society to the modern era.