The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work

by Arlie Russell Hochschild

Book Overview

The national bestseller that put "work/family balance" in the headlines and on the White House agenda, with a new introduction by the author.

When The Time Bind was first published in 1997, it was hailed as the decade's most influential study of our work/family crisis. In the short time since, the crisis has only become more acute.

Arlie Russell Hochschild, bestselling author of The Second Shift, spent three summers at a Fortune...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805066438
• ISBN13: 9780805066432
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Fresh and Provocative

Initially I approached this book thinking that it told the familiar (and not particularly interesting) tale of how the endless demands of the workplace are slowly eating way at the little time that we have to spend with our families or just ourselves. Well, this is NOT that tale. Rather, Professor Hochschild explores and succinctly describes how the workplace has become the dynamic community in our lives, to the exclusion of all else and at a price. The reasons have little to do with "work becoming unmanageable;" rather, it is "work becoming community." I find her ideas provocative, eye-opening and remarkably non- ideological, as it is simply reporting what is happening in our Country and to some extent throughout the world. Anyone who runs around 24/7 with a cell phone, beeper, blackberry, etc. knows what I am talking about. Highly recommended.

Excellent - though follow up research doesn't confirm

Summary:The book is essentially a report of the findings of a 3-year qualitative study by the author, Arlie Hochschild, of a Fortune 500 company's 'family-friendly' practices. The author interviewed people in all tiers of the organization, conducted surveys, followed employees, and did participant observations to try to understand how the company's family-friendly policies were being implemented.The result is The Time Bind. Though the company wants to give the impression that it is family-friendly, certain factors are working against the company actually living up to its policies. One is that for many of the managers at the company 'face time' or actually being at work is more important than actually doing anything at work. If your understanding of 'family-friendly' includes the possibility of working fewer hours, this is going to work against anyone that wants to participate in an hour reduction program. Another thing that the author posits that is working against family friendliness is that companies are turning the work environment into a safe and comforting environment (though doing this actually covers up the temporariness inherent in companies) and in essence are replacing the home environment or turning the home environment into something more akin to what work environments have traditionally been seen as being (e.g. scheduling time for kids and spouses, running from one thing to the next, not being able to rest, etc.). The result is that many people actually want to spend more time at work then they do at home because they feel more relaxed at work then they do at home. (Read the book to understand this argument more fully.)My Comments:I think the book is great. Admittedly one could claim that the author is biased - perhaps she is a social democrat that hates capitalism and sees her efforts as a way of attacking capitalism. I guess that is a possibility. And it does lead to the one criticism I see in the book: Arlie Hochschild never openly states the perspective she brings to the table in exploring the ramifications of The Time Bind. At one point she does posit that children that are left home alone have a higher rate of drug and alcohol abuse than do kids that are not left home alone. So, I guess her bias does seep out through comments like that. But, for individuals that share her bias (which is probably most people), I think this book does a great job of illustrating that capitalism really does have some problems - one being the deemphasizing of the family and the focus on work instead. In this sense, I can't help but comment that perhaps Emile Durkheim, in claiming that the eventual dissolution of religious authority that lent solidarity to society would be replaced by the workplace, seems to find a home in The Time Bind.Overall, the book is very well-written and engaging. The findings are presented using specific people and their stories which makes the book more like a morally laden collection of stories. But the sch

This is a book everyone should read

I picked this book up just by chance. I found it truthful, enlightening and very thought provoking. It is clear that the battle for our time is present. How should we be judged? Are we to be judged based on the hours of servitude or our accomplishments? What is the ultimate effect of long hours on our lives and families? In the modern job shuffle, are the hours justified?

Despite what some people think, it's about home.

The Time Bind is not about work. The reason that Hochschild uses so much work based data is because she wants to show that there is nothing at work in particular that makes us HAVE to be there. She talks about the horrible lack of support for young families that ends up making work more pleasant than home because at least at work parents are supported and know when they are doing the right thing or the wrong thing. (At home you never know if taking or not taking the lollipop from your 2-year-old will render them into raving loonies in 20 years.) The only time she really gets into how work itself contributes is when she says that many family friendly policies are an illusion or are believed to be an illusion by the workers. However, this book is not quite as clear as the Second Shift, which I thought was brilliant. It is also clarified by a knowledge of the Second Shift; it's easier to see the family orientation if you're familiar with her other work.