‘Rat race’ is a highly related concept. It’s mostly a subset, I think, although your view of the term may vary. Rat race illustrates the idea that when all the workers try harder to get ahead of other workers, everyone does lots more work, often to no useful end, without people on net getting ahead. Or, alternatively, that you do all this work just to stay in place. It certainly has implications of ‘what I am doing doesn’t actually matter’ and also ’what I am doing is a zero-sum game” which implies the first thing.
‘Rat race’ is a highly related concept. It’s mostly a subset, I think, although your view of the term may vary. Rat race illustrates the idea that when all the workers try harder to get ahead of other workers, everyone does lots more work, often to no useful end, without people on net getting ahead. Or, alternatively, that you do all this work just to stay in place. It certainly has implications of ‘what I am doing doesn’t actually matter’ and also ’what I am doing is a zero-sum game” which implies the first thing.