Time Bomb

Work, Rest and Play in Australia Today

Barbara Pocock, Natalie Skinner, Philippa Williams

• Publisher: NewSouth
• eBook ISBN:
  9781742245812
• Year: 2012

Time poverty is a conundrum for many Australian households and workers. Australians start work young, and we are working more, and longer into old age. And while maximising our productivity and enhancing our professional skills, we must raise our children well, care for our aged, be involved in our community and shrink our carbon footprint – a footprint shaped by the patterns and habits of our work, social obligations and households. Time Bomb investigates what it's costing Australian families to try and do it all. How men's time is taken up by work, crowding out their capacity to care, while women struggle to strike a balance between professional ambition and household obligations. What about our children, caught up in the middle of it all? And how do our teenagers cope as they enter into a work-life squeeze of their own? Relevant and sharp, Time Bomb turns a careful eye on all these issues, throwing light on poor urban planning, workplace policies and other socio-political issues that rob working families of time. And it looks at how work impacts our response to the greatest concern of our time – the planet's sustainability.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• 1. Set your alarm clock early
• 2. We need to talk about work, Kevin
• 3. Caring by the clock
• 4. Yearning for community: it takes time
• 5. Growing up in the suburbs
• 6. Learn, earn and burn? Education and work-life in Australia
• 7. Work, rest and play
• 8. Finding time for sustainable living
• 9. Defusing the time bomb
• Notes
• Index