Informative and infuriating, but a bit too long and dense at times. I didn't get as much out of it as I thought I would.

An important look at how we work and work too much. The pandemic truly impacted the nature of work life balance and how work is viewed.

I picked this up because I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed by work and the three major things I volunteer for (two boards and the PTA). Throw in family and household management and I was literally shaking in a corned wrapped in a blanket one day.
A big part of it for me is the lack of boundaries between work and home. Because we can work from home, we are expected to, even during our off hours. I was getting calls when I was meeting with people running for the school board. I was getting calls when trying to clean up my yard and winterize my house. I do not want work leaking into my life like that.
This book is packed with information about all this stuff. It covers the gender work gap during the pandemic, the issue of caregiver support, historical work issues, and all the classics.
It is a longer book than I usually read to make myself feel better about my life but I appreciated all the information! I am thinking about buying it as an audiobook and listening to it at work.

This book is utterly fascinating. Schulte's research is thorough and she's a compelling writer. It's a little disappointing how far we have to go but inspiring to see examples of solutions.

Oh, do I have an imaginary bone to pick with Brigid Schulte? Her brand-new book “Over Work: Transforming the Daily Grind in the Quest for a Better Life” (Henry Holt and Company, 2024) overflows with so much information and juicy insight into contemporary working life for Americans that I diverged down several adjacent research rabbit roles.

Like her previous New York Times bestselling book “Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time” (Sarah Crighton Books, 2014), Schulte marries sociological, economic, and social policy themes into the quickly-paced “Overwork,” while plenty of space for narrative interviews to elucidate each of her chapter theses supplement this research-heavy tome remains.

Her nearly twenty years of experience as a journalist at The Washington Post and The Washington Post Magazine may provide the “secret recipe” to her writing success: maintaining readers' curiosity, lightening (or fanning) their fury, and feeding their emotional hearts.

The three central premises of Over Work Schulte outlined in the Prologue: Meaning, Fairness, and Cooperation are:

1. When discussing work, it is time, especially for Americans, to consider paid and unpaid labor in our assessments.
2. “All of that work, paid and unpaid, needs to be good work.” Referencing Jan Lucassen’s “The Story of Work” (Yale University Press, 2021), good work rests on fairness, meaning, and cooperation
3. If there has ever been a time to change how we work, it is now.


While focused on the conundrum of the American labor force and working culture, Schulte ensures an international perspective with discussions about universal health care, guaranteed time off, and chapters dedicated to Japan’s Karoshi Culture and Iceland’s shorter work week.

For readers of Ai-jen Poo (National Domestic Workers Alliance), Alissa Quart (Bootstrapped, Squeezed), Stephanie Land (Maid, Class), Rose Hackman (Emotional Labor), and Eve Rodsky (Fair Play)

Thank you kindly to Brigid Schulte, Henry Holt and Company, and NetGalley for the eARC.

This book found me at exactly the right time. I was burnt out and exhausted by the corporate grid. In Over Work, Brigid Schulte provided an engaging and insightful look into the history and evolution of American work culture. It was equally fascinating to learn about other countries’ approach to work and work life balance. Over Work inspired me to reflect and strategize on how I can create a healthier and more sustainable balance with my own career and life, and for that I am grateful!

Such a fun read! Highly recommend.

Many thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

As someone who is currently a freelancer and considering returning to the traditional workforce, this was an extremely important book to read. The pandemic shifted so much conversation about the best physical location to work. I found this book fascinating with all the background and information about remote work vs. hybrid work and how those conversations are helping to shift the narrative about what is actually best.

Covering the health consequences with overwork alone should be enough to help leaders and organizations change their way of thinking about. the work load and environment that employees are most productive in. The United States has such a unique outlook on work compared to many other developed nations. It's incredibly important for companies to understand the risks of overwork and take the necessary steps to make changes internally where they can.

Schulte does a great job of presenting a lot of research and information in an interesting way with narratives woven in. Anyone working in recruitment, HR or leadership should be required to read this!

Standing ovation for OVER WORK by Brigid Schulte. Her meticulous research and thorough analysis of everything we do outside of our free time and leisure, whether we are paid or not contributes to a fascinating, deeply engaging book. By examining what we do and how we do it, Schulte expands our everyday assumptions of what it takes to live a good life, incorporating perspectives from countries other than the United States to reveal how different approaches result in vastly different outcomes. I especially appreciated her insights into how Americans fare given the current 24/7 accessibility and accountability culture we collectively suffer. Schulte has totally reoriented my thinking and days toward meaningful and impactful actions and in so doing, helped me draw a brighter and firmer line between my work and my leisure, enabling me to accomplish what is truly significant. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

As a teacher who sees how stressed out students are about the "right" college and getting perfect grades so they can make enough money, it's good to see someone who realizes that this is no longer the path to success. A welcome breath of honesty and a nice reality check.

I felt this to my core. As someone who has felt burnt out for most of the year, this book was both a revelation and a validation. The contrast to other work cultures was interesting, and inspiring, because they know how to get the most out of their workers without draining all the life and energy they have.

Thank you to @netgalley and the publishers for this free ACR in exchange for an honest and fair review. I adored this book. I would have liked listening to it as an audiobook but we can’t always win. I’m sure it is an excellent audiobook for purchase! Over Work is a perfect book for these post-Covid times. As I always say to my boss, the veil has been lifted and work culture will never be the same. Everything from unpredictable schedules wrecking havoc on retail workers, to work “perks” like yoga attempting to sweeten the pot for underpaid employees, to unpaid work involved in child care, income inequity from state to state, unionization, the list of interesting and apropos topics goes on. READ THIS BOOK. Truly it is a sociology professors dream book.

This was by far, one of the best business/leadership and culture books I've read this year. The author really takes a deep dive into work culture and how it specifically impacts women. I really liked how the author gives examples of other work cultures outside the States and how it is possible for Americans to adopt different styles of working. My only wish is that she had included a section or two about what specific things the reader could do to support change in their own work environements.

*Thank you Netgalley for the eARC*

Overwork is a truly eye opening book on what work has evolved to within the United States, where working to the point of burnout is glorified and praised. Schulte goes deep into telling the stories from people of all backgrounds and ethnicities, and the socioeconomic problems they have navigated in the enragingly frustrating economy, within, and outside of their workplaces.

It is a timeline of facts, paired with the brutal realities of the too expensive childcare and its underpaid workers, harrowing treatment of employees and the compensation they are given, as well as families barely getting by to survive.

A fantastic non-fiction book that puts on a greater perspective on the deteriorating economy and work ethics that a majority of the U.S. (and the West)is refuses to acknowledge.

Timely, engaging, and well-researched. A recommended purchase for most nonfiction collections, particularly where employment and pop psychology titles are popular.

An important compelling look at work at the life problem of overwork never relaxing no downtime.Brigid Schulte provides so much research even traveling to other countries to interview workers in other countries.Thoughtful eye opening a fascinating read.#netgalley #henryholt.

An extremely compelling look at America’s work culture (or culture of overwork). Full of research and examples that illustrate problems and potential solutions. I enjoyed learning more about protocols other countries have in place for improving workplaces and work-life balance. It is easy to feel disillusioned and heartbroken while reading and so I especially appreciated the author’s hopeful tone and practical suggestions for individuals, workplaces, and policy makers. Highly recommend.

Thank you very much to Henry Holt & Company and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

The impressive amount of research that the author did to complete this book is astounding.

I was really impressed that she interviewed regular people facing what the current chapter was on. It gave a more human face to the situations at hand. Whether that was tons of work, not enough work, shift work, on call work.
She combined real life with research to back it up, I really appreciated that.

She also looked outside of the United States, especially Japan and Iceland. One for over work, suicides in Japan, and one in Iceland and how they are trying to do better.

This is one book that every worker needs to read and many leaders as well.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author Brigid Schulte, and the publisher Henry Holt & Co. for an advanced reader’s copy of Overwork.

Over work shows how work is no longer working for people. I highly recommend this book. The author eloquently explains the issue of being overworked.

I am so glad that I got a chance to review this book in advance - it really hit me at the right time as someone who has been struggling with work boundaries, figuring out how to fit work into my life without letting it dominate it, and struggling with how much is my responsibility versus society's. I really liked the author's approach to distilling it all down, and with a lot of examples of how other countries approach work, and how much better it could be in America. Change feels hard - we are already tasked and saddled with so much that we feel helpless to change here, but I certainly won't give up doing my best to make the world better for myself and others.