Less Time for Our Jobs,More Time for Ourselves: The Problem of Overwork in America Today

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, back in 1970, 18 percent of all “full-tune” workers worked 49 hours or more a week; by 1989 almost 24 percent of all “full-time workers” were working 49 or more hours per week. Approximately 6.2 percent of all workers now hold both one full-time job plus one or more other jobs, up from 5.2 percent in 1970. (The percentage of moonlighting men has decreased slightly over that time, from 7.0 percent to 6.4 percent, while the percent of women working more than one job has risen from 2.2 percent in 1970 to 5.9 percent in 1989.) Increased hours characterize workers at all income levels; one study showed that many executives are now working 20 percent more hours than they did a decade ago, while many factory workers are putting in almost 4 hours of overtime a week, the most in nearly 20 years. And while 19 million families had two or more wage earners in 1980, there were almost 22 million two-earner families by 1988. Above statistics cited in Kilborn Peter T. , “Tales from the digital treadmill,” New York Sunday Times, June 30, 1990, pp. 4–1 to 4–3.

Leete-Guy and Schor calculate that when you include both time spent on the job and time at non-paid household tasks, men and women with full-time jobs now work an average of four weeks more per year than they did in 1969. Leete-Guy Laura , and Schor Juliet B. , “Assessing the Time-Squeeze Hypothesis: Estimates of Market and Non-Market Hours in the United States, 1969–1987,” Dept. of Economics, Harvard U., June 1990. Studies conducted by Forbes and Louis Harris and Associates conclude that leisure time has gone from a weekly average of 26.2 hours in 1973, to 24.3 in 1975, 19.2 in 1980, 18.1 in 1985, and 16.6 in 1987. Forbes study reported in Arizona Daily Star Parade Magazine, Jan. 5, 1986, p. 5, and Louis Harris study cited in Kilborn, op.cit., p. 4–3.

See for example Gibbs Nancy , “How America has run out of time,” Time, April 24, 1989, pp. 58–67.

“Alternative Work Patterns,” Facts on U.S. Working Women, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Women's Bureau, Fact Sheet No. 86-3, Aug. 1986, p. 1.

Googins Bradley , and Burden Dianne , Boston University Balancing Job and Homelife Study: Managing Work and Family Stress in Corporations, Boston: B.U. School of Social Work, 1987.

“Alternative Work Patterns,” p. 1.

Hochschild Arlie , Second Shift, New York: Viking, 1989.

“Alternative Work Patterns,” p. 1.

Mellman Mark Lazarus Edward and Rivlin Allan , “Family Time, Family Values,” pp. 73–92, pp. 88–89 in Blankenhorn David Bayme Steven and Elshtain Jean Bethke ; Rebuilding the Nest: A New Commitment to the American Family, Milwaukee: Family Service America, 1990.

Economists and feminists are increasingly recognizing the sexist nature of this omission. See Leete-Guy and Schor , op.cit., p. 6.

Googins and Burden , op cit.

“California poll finds a wish for more family life at careers' expense,” (AP), Boston Globe, Aug. 13, 1990, p. 6.

Toufexis Anastasia , “Drowsy America,” Time, Dec. 17, 1990, pp. 78–85.

Karasek Robert , and Theorell Tores , Healthy Work: Stress, Productivity, and the Reconstruction of Working life, New York: Basic Books, 1990, p. 167.

“Working class families,” Economic Notes, Labor Research Association, N.Y.C., Vol. 53, No. 4, April 1985, p. 2

Kilborn , op cit., p. 4–3.

Futtrell Mary Hatwood , “The ‘Mommy Track’ in perspective,” Women at Work, Newsletter of the National Commission on Working Women, Washington D.C., Spring/Summer 1989, p. 2.

See for example Mishel Lawrence , and Simon Jacqueline , The State of Working America, Washington D.C.: Economic Policy Institute, 1988; and “They Didn't Come to the Party: A Tough Decade for Families in the Middle,” DSG Special Report No. 101-32, Democratic Study Group, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington D.C., July 2, 1990.

“They Didn't Come to the Party,” p. 7.

“They Didn't Come to the Parry,” p. 5.

Mishel and Simon , op cit., p. 2.

Butler Katy , ?The great boomer bust,” Mother Jones, June 1989, pp. 32–38.

Mishel and Simon , op cit., p. 45.

“Working class families,” p. 4.

Mattera Philip , Prosperity Lost: How A Decade of Greed has Eroded Our Standard of Living and Endangered Our Children's Future, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1990.

Sahlins Marshall , Stone Age Economics. New York: Aldine, 1972, See Chapter 1. See also Schor Juliet B. , “Toil and Trouble: Leisure in a Capitalist Economy,” Dept. of Economics, Harvard U., no date; pp. 4–5.

See Hunt Susan , “Why tribal peoples and peasants of the Middle Ages had more free time than we do,” Utne Reader, No. 23, Sept.–Oct. 1987, pp. 58–60, p. 60; and Schor, ?Toil and Trouble,” pp. 5–6.

Schor , “Toil and Trouble,” p. 6.

See Hansen Fay , “Maternity benefits abroad,” in Economic Notes, April 1985, pp. 13–15; and Sirianni, Carmen, “Self-management of time: A democratic alternative,” Socialist Review, V. 18, #4, Oct.–Dec. 1988: Pp. 5–56.

Leete-Guy and Schor , op.cit, p. 46.

Gordon Suzanne , “Prisoners of work,” Boston Globe Magazine, Aug. 29, 1989, pp. 16–60, p. 41.

Gordon Suzanne , “Prisoners of work,” p. 41.

Two important recent histories of the work-time struggle in the U.S. are Hunnicutt, Kline Benjamin , Work Without End: Abandoning Shorter Hours for the Right to Work, Philadelphia: Temple U. Press, 1988; and Roediger David R. and Foner Philip S. , Our Own Time: A History of American Labor and the Working Day, New York: Verso, 1989; from which this section is taken.

Roediger and Foner , op.cit., p. 275.

Roediger and Foner , op.cit., p. 276.

See for example Robinson Bryan E. , Work Addiction, Deerfield Beach, Florida: Health Communications, Inc, 1989.

This and other data on inadequately cared for children appears in Labich, Kenneth, “Can your career hurt your kids?” Fortune, May 20, 1992, pp. 38–56.

On reluctance of men to reduce their work hours, see Deutschman Alan , “Pioneers of the new balance,” Fortune, May 20, 1992, pp. 61–68.

For reasons behind management reluctance to experiment with alternative work schedules, see Deutschman , op.cit.

Kilborn , op cit., p. 4–3.

See Flexible Workstyles: A Look at Contingent Labor, Conference Summary, U.S. Dept. of Labor, Women's Bureau, Washington D.C., 1988. See also Mattera , op.cit, Chapters 4 and 5; and Brecher Jeremy and Costello Tim , “The great time squeeze,” Z Magazine, Oct. 1990, pp. 102–107.

Schor , “Toil and Trouble,” p. 2.

See Mattera , op cit., Chapters 2 and 6.

Gibbs , op.cit, p. 61.

This quote and the following material on the “Mommy Track” controversy come from Peterson, Karen S., “Separate career paths for moms and non-moms?” USA Today, March 10, 1989, p. D-8.

See Nyland C. , Reduced Worktime and the Management of Production, Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1989; and White M. , Case Studies of Shorter Working Time, London: Policy Studies Institute, 1981. (Both books cited in Schor Juliet B. , “Global Equity and Environmental Crisis: An Argument for Reducing Working Hours in the North,” Dept. of Economics, Harvard U., Jan. 1990, p. 14.)

For a wealth of references on benefits to business of pro-family workplace policies and more flexible scheduling, see Hewlett Sylvia Ann , “Good News? The Private Sector and Win-Win Scenarios,” pp. 207–226 in Blankenhorn Bayme , and Elshtain , op cit.

“Third of surveyed workers stress point: I want to quit,” Boston Herald, May 7, 1992, p. 3. This study, released May 6, 1992, was sponsored by Northwestern National Life Insurance Company.

Karasek and Theorell , op. cit, p. 165.

Karasek and Theorell , p. 168.

New Ways to Work, 149 Ninth St., San Francisco, CA 94103; and Association of Part-Time Professionals, Crescent Plaza, Suite 216, 7700 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church VA 22043. See also the comprehensive guidebook on setting up alternative work arrangements written by NWTW staff: Olmsted, Barney and Suzanne Smith, Creating a Flexible Workplace: How to Select and Manage Alternative Work Options, New York, NY., American Management Association, 1989.

See Schaef , Ann Wilson and Diane Fassel, The Addictive Organization, San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988, See also Robinson , op. cit. also Kiechel Walter III , The workaholic generation,” Fortune, April 10, 1989, pp. 50–62.

For example Levitan Sar A. and Belous Richard S. , Shorter Hours, Shorter Weeks: Spreading the Work to Reduce Unemployment, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press, 1977.

See for example Revzin Philip , “Swedes gain leisure, not jobs, by cutting hours,” Wall St. Journal, Jan. 7, 1985, p. 28.

Hirsch Kathleen , “A new vision of corporate America,” Boston Globe Magazine, April 21, 1992, pp. 16–50; see also Hewlett, op. cit.; Labich, op cit. and Deutschman, op. cit.

McGaughey William Jr. , “The international dimensions of reduced hours,” Society for the Reduction of Human Labor Newsletter, Vol 1, #1, Spring 1990, pp. 6–7, p. 6.

See Brecher Jeremy and Costello Tim , “Labor Goes Global,” Z Magazine, Jan. 199, pp 90–97.