In 1992 Juliet B. Schor wrote a book that became a bestseller, The Overworked American.  According to Schor’s calculations, the average, employed American in 1987 worked 163 more hours a year than in 1969. Furthermore, she predicted that by 2000, Americans will have no more leisure time than they did in the 1920s. It is hard to underestimate the influence of Schor’s study.  It spawned a “Take Back Your Time” movement committed to challenging the overworked. Schor’s thesis, however, has not gone unchallenged. 

Her research was questioned a few years later by John P. Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey. They argued that Schor depended entirely too much on the ability of respondents to estimate how they spend their time.  Robinson and Godbey utilized time diaries, where people kept specific track of a day’s activities.  When the diaries were compared with an individual’s estimate of how much time was spent at work, Robinson and Godbey noted, “an escalating pattern of overestimation appears . . . Workers who actually worked 55 hours estimate 80 hours on the job.” Overall, Robinson and Godbey argued, leisure is on the rise. 

Statisticians will continue to debate the exact amount of leisure employees enjoy, but there is widespread agreement that laborers feel overworked.  In 2004, according to a survey administered by the Families and Work Institute, 26% of Americans said they were overworked; 27% said they were overwhelmed by the amount of work they faced; and 29% said they did not have the time to step back and process the work they were doing.  Furthermore, those who reported being overworked and overwhelmed were more likely to complain of stress, self-neglect, and even depression.  Whether employees are really working more or just feeling stressed, Americans have less leisure time than economists once predicted they would have. Why? 

1.  Consumerism.  Trying to make ends meet, or perhaps simply a slave to consumerism, some work more hours for economic reasons.  It is hard to deny that Americanism and materialism are two peas in a pod; materialism is bought by the dollar and the more one works, the more dollars one earns. 

2.  Status.  Others work extra for the prestige it brings. They may stay late to please the boss or to look valuable to their peers.  Oddly enough, in American culture, being “busy” has become a sign of status and importance. This cultural pressure may be enough incentive to look harried even when one is not. 

3. Technology.  One common explanation for the harried pace of life today is that technology has changed everyone’s perception of time.  In an age where computer memory is measured in nanoseconds (one billionth of a second), it is no wonder people get frustrated waiting in line.  Not only has technology changed our perception of time, but it has filled our schedule with gadgets to manipulate.  Consider how much time the average employee spends returning emails, checking voicemail, and surfing the web!  

There are many good reasons to work; as the witty writer Dorothy Sayers once said, “work is not, primarily, a thing one does to live, but the thing one lives to do.” Not to buy more, not to gain prestige, not be technologically savvy, but because work is one aspect of our worship.  The important thing to remember, of course, is that work is one aspect of our worship. So is rest. Christians are not to be so dazzled by the mall, so impressed by their boss, so controlled by the nanosecond that they forget God rested.