Introduction
The chapter presents selected information adapted from Hochschild’s 1997 book The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. In this chapter, Hochschild discusses the changing relationship between work and home life based on her research of working parents. The main conclusion of the author is that, for many people, work and home lives reversed places, with people escaping the pressures of family life by working more.
Main body
Hochschild begins by painting a picture of an average family, where both parents work outside of the home (p. 614). The description draws attention to two facts: the lack of time needed for a relaxed lifestyle and the parents’ preoccupation with work matters in their free time. Hochschild notes that although many companies have family-friendly policies in place, few employees use them (p. 616). The author argues that this is because people feel more appreciated, relaxed, and secure at work, while their home is full of stress from parenting and romantic relationships (Hochschild, p. 617).
The reversal in how people perceive their work and home is mainly due to shifts in management, which helped to create a better and more relaxing environment in many workplaces. Another reason for this trend is that a busy lifestyle puts pressure on people to perform their duties efficiently, including at home (Hochschild, p. 620). This is particularly true for women since they are still more involved in-home duties than men (Hochschild, p. 622). In this context, people continue pushing themselves to be more productive at home instead of relaxing and enjoying time with family.
Conclusion
The author concludes that contemporary workaholic culture prevents people from having a rewarding family life. It also affects children who spend less time with their parents than they do with babysitters or in daycare and school. Hochschild proposes looking at the experience of other developed countries’ work-family models and adapting their features to the U.S. context (624). According to the author, this could help people to achieve a balanced lifestyle where they would not have to escape home life at work.
References
Hochschild, Arlie Russell. “The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work.” The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality, edited by Tracy E. Ore, 2nd ed., McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2003, pp. 614-624.