Americans are busy, time is scarce

An article in the UMass Amherst alumni magazine, Keep On Keepin’ On, talks about work being a “greedy” institution, it takes all your time.

According to the story, people have less time than ever, and, even though the work week is the same, people are devoting more time to paid work than ever before, and, other life aspects are squeezed:

Tasks they once accomplished throughout the week now get squeezed into evenings and weekends delegated to other family members or paid help, put off, or abandoned.

Chores aren’t the only things being squeezed. New moms and dads trade off work so that someone’s always bringing up the baby. In families with two working parents, sniffly kids go to school because no one can stay home with them. When Grammy develops a terminal illness, her children perform a calculus of how many sick days they can take to be with her—and still have a day or two for the funeral. School PTOs go begging, and the Y comes up short for youth basketball coaches.

The workplace must become more friendly to families, but, we have to demand change.