1. Introducing the Dream(s)
2. Aspiring to Be the Ideal Worker
3. Playing the Perfect Parent
4. Working Toward the Ultimate Body
5. The Promise of Technology
6. Creating a Spiral of Expectations
7. Invisible Work Is Real Work
8. Scaffolding Dreams
9. Building Tomorrow's Scaffolding
Epilogue: Steps Forward
Christine M. Beckman is Professor and Price Family Chair in Social Innovation at the University of Southern California Sol Price School of Public Policy. Melissa Mazmanian is Associate Professor in Informatics at the School of Information and Computer Science at the University of California, Irvine.
"This marvelous book captures the contemporary experience of nine
families, allowing them to speak for themselves about their dreams
and how they cope with everyday life. Uniquely, it celebrates the
fact that it is the dense web of social connections or scaffolding
that enables family life to thrive in the digital age."-Judy
Wajcman, London School of Economics
"What makes this book unique is its tough love message. Left to its
own devices, technology makes us more likely to buy into myths of
our perfectibility. The way out begins with our deep understanding
of our vulnerability. From there, these savvy and humanistic
researchers can help you design a customized plan for individuals
and organizations. But it's going to be a plan, not a
gimmick."-Sherry Turkle, author of Alone Together: Why We Expect
More from Technology and Less from Each Other
"Christine Beckman and Melissa Mazmanian embarked on an ambitious
project to understand how technology shapes our lives and wound up
producing an intimate and urgent portrait of American families
stretched to the breaking point. An important work, Dreams of
the Overworked busts some potent myths and makes a compelling
argument for large-scale changes necessary in public policy and our
overworked workplace cultures to allow American families time to
breathe, and thrive at work and at home."-Brigid Schulte, author of
Overwhelmed: Work, Love & Play when No One Has the Time,
director, The Better Life Lab at New America
"Work-life balance might be a myth, but the evidence that better
rhythm is possible is very real. In this thoughtful, readable book,
two experts share what they've learned about how to prioritize
work, family, health, and relationships without making yourself
insane."-Adam Grant, New York Times-bestselling author of
Originals and Give and Take
"Beckman and Mazmanian show the stakes in everyday life as we
pursue perfection. Whether being the best parent and worker or
having a perfect body, we try achieving the unattainable by working
hard and efficiently to do more and do it better. Dreams of the
Overworked explores the internal work that fills our days-and
our minds-as we navigate life, simultaneously alone and in a
crowd."-Chuck Darrah, San Jose State University
"Beckman and Mazmanian capture timeless and essential truths about
blending parenting and employment. Their study of nine
upper-middle-class families exposes the independent 'choice'
narrative as an idealized fiction and reveals the power of
interdependencies in well-run organizations and in loving families.
This is a book about cooperation and dependence-dependence on both
earning an income and being an involved parent; dependence on our
children for their cooperation in the shared endeavor; dependence
on our partners, extended family, and friends for their engagement
and care; dependence on caregivers who, as Beckman and Mazmanian
explain, provide the scaffolding that makes each unique work-family
blend possible."-Kathleen L. McGinn, Harvard Business School
"This wonderfully intriguing book vividly portrays the lives of
nine California-based professional families with young children at
home as they try to meet the competing demands of work, parenting,
and being fit and healthy. By observing and participating in the
home life of these families over extended periods of time, Beckman
and Mazmanian reveal how invisible and undervalued support from
extended family members, friends, neighbors, and communities is the
scaffolding that makes survival and success possible; and they show
how smartphones and other personal devices, which are supposed to
help, may actually increase the stress of overwork. The
example-rich writing is delightful and the informative endnotes
fully cover a wide range of literature. By making vivid the
everyday details of family work necessary to deal with the
competing demands created by the myths of the ideal worker, perfect
parent, and ultimate body, this book is eye-opening and a must-read
for all."-Lotte Bailyn, author of Breaking the Mold: Redesigning
Work for Productive and Satisfying Lives
"In their excellent new book, Beckman and Mazmanian explore the
Herculean task today's families face as they strive to live up to
the unrealistic expectation of doing everything perfectly while
also being bombarded by 'helpful technologies.' Their in-depth look
at different family configurations frames the challenges-but, more
importantly, potential solutions-that today's unique families need
to understand in order to thrive in these changing times."-Brad
Harrington, Executive Director, Boston College Center for Work &
Family
"We cannot see what we cannot name. Beckman and Mazmanian cover the
familiar terrain of work-family pressures by following real
families and telling their stories. In the process, they make much
that is invisible visible, naming and defining different kinds of
work and introducing the important new concept of scaffolding. They
allow us to see society not as individuals making choices and
decisions, but as webs of vital but under-appreciated and
under-nourished relationships. I learned a great deal from this
book; it's an easy read with a lot to say."-Anne-Marie Slaughter,
CEO, New America
"How might the myths of the ideal worker, perfect parent/caregiver,
and ultimate body play out as we live and work longer? Are there
new myths that also need to be explored for overwork as we age and
care for others over the life course? Beckman and Mazmanian have
started us strongly on the path to answer such deep questions that
remain in our struggles to thrive in our lives on and off the
job."-Ellen Ernst Kossek, Administrative Science
Quarterly
"Dreams of the Overworked is a text that succeeds in
rendering the textures and feelings of the everyday struggles of
middle- to upper-class American working parentsa beautiful piece of
ethnography."-Anne Antoni, Organization Studies
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