Is labor a gift from God?

Reading an interesting book... Go Hire Yourself an Employer and thought this passage was interesting
By labor I mean something I'm obligated to do, dumb work that gives me little pleasure (no matter how much lucre I earn).
The idea of "labor" was brought to a productive boil by Lord Calvin and other Swiss theologians who preached that we labor because it's our duty, that God's grace anoints those who press the grapes and winnow the chaff.  Labor was a pleasure in one sense; It got the awful monkey of obligation off our backs.  Until we rose again the next morning to fervently welcome another ton of Karma.  An endless cycle of labor/obligation, of obligation/labor.
This interpretation of God's will formed the ideological basis for capitalism; it sanctioned wealth as an indication and measure of God's grace and signaled our election to heaven and eternal life; a reason to labor at a dumb job.
(I have to add this last line even though it's beside my point because it's really in this paragraph, in the book and it totally cracks me up!)
I mean, people really busted ass.

So I guess I thought this was interesting because my husband really feels the success from his hard days work (although not on a day like today when he's recovering from seriously smashing his middle finger, it was 35 degrees out, windy and raining).  And while I do to, his seems more like this definition of labor because it's really truly back breaking work (no khakis or cubicle).
Is labor a gift from God?