June 28, 2021
In this brisk and persuasive polemic, Lewis and Stronge, researchers at the U.K. think tank Autonomy, make the case for a four-day work week, without a loss in average pay for workers. They blame stagnant wages, unpaid overtime, and precarious employment on neoliberal efforts to “smash the power of collective workers,” and cite Karl Marx to explain how the enclosure of the commons in the 15th and 16th centuries gave rise to wage labor, setting the conditions wherein employers can push workers “to their physical limits” and impose strict expectations and codes of conduct. They also consider how a shorter work week would benefit women (who are often saddled with the brunt of unpaid labor at home) and the environment (by reducing workers’ carbon footprints). Noting that trade unions and progressive politicians in Europe and the U.S. have backed a four-day work week, and that the Covid-19 pandemic has raised awareness of the need for workplace reforms, the authors advocate for a grassroots social movement to unite behind the cause, though their analysis of the political and economic forces that stand in the way is somewhat underdeveloped. Still, this is a lucid call for harnessing the power of collective action to strike a better work-life balance.
August 1, 2021
Acknowledging a workforce in flux, Stronge and Lewis use Overtime as a vehicle to review labor history while illuminating issues that persist in today's workplace. Focusing on a work-obsessed society, the failure of labor-saving technology to reduce work hours, the undervaluing of women's work, and the toll of work on the environment, Overtime brings both hope and despair. The societal and environmental benefits of a shorter work week are clearly outlined, as are the obstacles to business leaders embracing the deconstruction and rebuilding of the economy that is fundamental to the shorter work-week movement. Drawing on the writings of prominent economists and social activists such as Frances Perkins, Karl Marx, and John Maynard Keynes, solid evidence supports the call for a shortened work week and the unlikeliness of C-Suites making the changes voluntarily. Legislative mandates will be necessary, driven by a movement of the people, in order to effect change. Overtime will have an audience in business school, state, and public policy libraries as well as larger public library collections.
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