Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty

¶ … Fighting Overwork and Time Poverty in America by John De Graaf. Specifically, it will contain a review of the book, including a summary of the critical concepts presented in this book. Americans work more than just about any other people on Earth and it affects everything from personal relationships to health and well-being. This book contains numerous essays regarding the relationship between time, work, and personal life. It gives some concrete ideas on how to create more "quality time" in life, but it seems few Americans heed the advice these experts have to offer. Americans are working more than ever, spending more than ever, and commuting more than ever. Americans live to work it seems, even though few might ever admit that fact aloud.

The first essay states Americans worked 199 more hours in the year 2000 than they did in 1973, which equates to five weeks more of work a year, based on a 40-hour work week (Schor 7). This is an amazing number, and citing it so early in the work makes the reader think about work and what it means to American society. The essays in this book explore that and many other aspects of the American work ethic, all of them pointing to the importance of job and career in our culture.

One of the interesting aspects of this increased workload is the "work-and-spend" ethic that many Americans subscribe to. People work harder today, but consumerism is also at an all time high. Many Americans are obsessed with "stuff" - from the oversized SUV to new furniture, clothing, and thousands of other discretionary expenses that seem to have become a necessity in modern life. The society is based on this consumerism, and it begins at a very young age. Many people are working more hours because they have to in order to afford the accessories of life that have become somehow necessary. These can be anything from designer handbags to swimming pools, new cars, and fancy kitchen gadgets. Many people justify the money they spend on their long hours at work, which seems to turn into a vicious cycle that can never stop. It is an interesting concept and one that the reader must ponder in their own lives.

Another interesting aspect is the comparison between American work hours and those in Europe. In Europe, laws guarantee vacations and limit work hours, and many Europeans get as much as four or five weeks of vacation each year. In America, laws ensure employers they can require mandatory overtime, and very few states even limit the number of overtime hours an employer can require in a two-week period. Another essayist notes, "In the U.S., it is entirely legal for an employer to require an employee to work beyond his or her scheduled shift time with no advance notice, and to take disciplinary action against an employee who refuses" (Golden 29). This seems grossly unfair to employees - the only people this law benefits are the employers. At a time when more couples are both working to support families, the difficulties of this law are clear. Who will pick up the child from childcare? Who will watch the children if the parents are required to work overtime with no notice? What will the employer do if they do not comply? Will they lose their jobs? It makes the reader wonder why Americans put up with this treatment. Surely, many are afraid of their jobs, but others simply endure the process. One hundred years ago, working conditions were appalling and workers formed unions to air their grievances and build new labor laws that treated workers fairly. Today, workers simply accept their fate instead of fighting for reform. It makes the reader wonder what the difference is, and why today's workers are "content" with the system.

All of this work and stress directly relates to American issues in recreation and leisure. Americans are taking fewer vacations. Movie theater attendance is down; more people are watching films in the comfort of their own homes. Fast food is what is on much of the nation's dinner plate, and busy families rush from school to athletic practice to bed just about every day of the week. Where is the fun in recreation and leisure when it becomes a "job" too? Americans are so overscheduled, they have to schedule "appointments" with themselves to exercise, and they even hire pet sitters for their stressed out pets who are depressed and lonely without human attention. Work has come to mean everything in our culture, and those who allow work to take a backseat to other pleasures are seen as "slackers" or "lazy."