I really hate when authors attempt to use words intrinsically associated with religion to explain secular activities. Even as a metaphor it doesn't work for me. It doesn't help me understand and it doesn't enlighten me. And quite often it's used as a means to proselytize. Since you're going to worship something it's better to worship in one of the pre-existing religions, usually my particular religion. From one of the links in the article:

Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship-be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles-is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things-if they are where you tap real meaning in life-then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already-it's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power-you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart-you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on. 

The concept of worship becomes so degraded that anything you spend a lot of time on becomes the thing you worship. I've spent a lot of time in my life on music. I joined the army just to play music in the Army Band. Even though much of the music I played was not my favorite type of music. So I spent my days practicing music and performing music even though I wasn't good enough to make it in the professional world as a classical or jazz trumpeter. I have over 400 record albums that I've more than listened to. I've studied them, analyzed them. I bought books and charts so I could see the chord changes etc. I spent many many hours going to jazz bars and concerts to listen to music. I like music. It was fun for me. It was an enjoyable past time and enjoyable employment even when I wasn't playing my preferred music. But I wasn't worshiping music and it wasn't my new religion. I like reading too and I've read a lot of books, both fiction and non-fiction. But in no way was I worshiping my intellect and I never worried I would "end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out."

Perhaps finding work that is your passion and your love is an unrealistic goal. Except for rare and brief periods of time I wasn't able to find a career that was fulfilling. But it's a better goal than just trading hours for dollars and living a life of quite desperation. Maybe we need to find a broader way to joy and fulfillment in life. But equating workism with religion and worship doesn't seem to be the way to find that better way. Nor does it seem to me that the goal of finding meaningful work is the cause of people working increased hours. There are other more mundane economic and cultural reasons why people have become more consumed by their jobs.