Study & Research America 1980-1989: Lifestyles and Social Trends

In The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure (1991) Juliet B. Schor disagrees with researchers who claim that Americans had more leisure time in the 1980s than they had in earlier decades. According to Schor, Americans enjoyed less leisure in the 1980s than at any other period since the end of World War II. She says that a gradual but definite increase in working hours has hit most sections of the workforce, from professionals to low-paid service workers, creating "a profound structural crisis of time." According to Schor, "the media provide mounting evidence of 'time poverty,' overwork, and a squeeze on time. . . . Stress-related diseases have exploded, especially among women. Workers' compensation claims related to stress tripled during just the first half of the 1980s." The fast-paced corporate world of the 1980s emphasized commitment and initiative. Schor quotes one aggressive CEO as saying, "People who work for...
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