The Guardian has published two extracts from Madeleine Bunting’s new book “Willing Slaves – How the Overwork Culture is Ruling our Lives” - an insight into how work has come to dominate our lives despite offering us little more than stagnant wages, job insecurity, stress and exhaustion.
Such are the demands of many jobs that leisure has been reduced to simply a time to recuperate before the gruelling demands of the next week's work. Ours has become a more work-centred society than ever; it demands more of us than ever, and it also purports to fulfil more of our needs than ever. The office is now where the heart is, not the home, as the complexities of the workplace demand an ever larger share of our emotional resources.