Not so long ago the conventional wisdom was that technological advances would lead to 'a problem of leisure'. In fact, after a century of falling hours, working time began to rise again in the 1990s as the total amount of unpaid overtime hours increased dramatically. 'Willing slaves' is a very good exploration of what went wrong. More importantly, it is also a manifesto for change.
Madeline Bunting draws on a wealth of research and statistics to make her case, but it is her judicious use of human stories and quotes from real workers that is most compelling. Some of the descriptions of busy lives stretched almost to breaking point are moving, and worryingly, they will strike a chord with far too many of us. Pete, a technical consultant, describes his situation thus, 'anyone who strives to meet the demands of work overload will take the stress home with them: poor sleep quality, inability to engage in conversation, a f*** it attitude to bills, shopping, parent phoning, friend phoning, eating and sex. To me these indicate clinical depression'.
Madeleine's exploration of the reasons work long hours is a good antidote to the CBI's bland view that they simply want to do so.
One cause is low pay, which drives some workers to long hours just to ensure that they have a decent standard of living for themselves and their families. Maev, a cleaner in London hospital, works hard to be able to send money to support her family in Africa. Despite her long hours, once her rent is paid she is left with less than £50 a week to live on.
Another cause is old-fashioned macho management. Lee, a car plant worker with a degree in engineering says that 'overtime was forced on us at weekends. Often it was 50 or 60 hours a week. I was bullied by the team leader'.
For others, the driver is the tyranny of increasing workloads. To quote Pete again, ''better this depth of sh*t than the one that comes from skiving off - tomorrows deadlines are the day after's heart attacks''.
Some of the worst intensification has been in the public sector, where many managers and professionals have been driven to long hours by marketisation, targets and bureaucracy. Kate, a junior civil servant says that she now needs to work 'mad hours' for her career to progress.
For many of those in high status jobs the process is even more insidious. The work ethic has been reformulated by the development of a business psychology that harnesses the narrative of self-realisation. The idea is that if, to coin a phrase, you are what you do, then more working time should enhance your sense of self worth.
Having a sense of vocation is certainly a good thing; the problem is that there is no effective limit to stop people from working themselves to death.
The fact is that too much work is bad for you have recently been reaffirmed by Government studies. In particular, the risk of developing heart problems or stress-related illness is increased by long hours.
There is also no doubt that long hours reinforce the glass ceiling - 80 per cent of long hours workers are men. In the words of a Microsoft executive, 'women look at how big these big jobs are and make a choice'. The unequal division of housework and childcare militates against women taking such jobs.
Family life can be badly squeezed by long hours, and contact with friends can be lost. Manufacturing worker Tony's daughter demands his attention to the extent that she will not let him talk to his friends on his day off.
Worse still, excessive working time can even stop the creation of a family, as long hours can depress fertility.
Yet we are currently being exhorted to work longer hours by some commentators. This wrong-headed notion needs to be stamped on hard. The DTI's 2003 report on productivity found that there were no further productivity gains to be had from working longer hours.
In fact, long hours can undermine productivity. Tired employees work slower, make more mistakes and go sick more frequently. However, the business case against overwork is not always enough to convince employers to change.
One reason is that 'Markets externalise the social costs of their ways of working'. This is certainly true of stress related illness, where the HSE estimate that employers pay only 1.2 billion a year of the £4.1 billion annual cost.
Working time is certainly rising fast up the trade union agenda. Not least because their members are increasingly telling them that they want greater control over their hours and patterns of work.
It is not always an easy debate where overtime is concerned. The trick is to review working time as part of a package that includes work organisation, training, investment and productivity.
Madeleine concludes that unions are part of the solution, but that we can't do it all on our own. Government needs to take the lead in dealing with the overwork culture effectively. In particular, the opt-out from the 48-hour week is sending completely the wrong message about working time and should be phased out.
Such a program would be cutting with the grain of society. There is evidence that we are now at the tipping point on working time. Fulltime hours in the UK are now beginning to fall again, and the number of people working more than 48 hours per week has declined by 7.5 per cent since 1998. Things are starting to move in the right direction but they need a push from Government to speed them up
Those who believe that the long hours culture is immutable should remember what happened to the 'problem of leisure'. Read 'Willing Slaves' and start thinking about how we can free ourselves.
Review by Paul Sellers, TUC.
