Work hard, play hard: on the reciprocity of work conditions and leisure lifestyles

The term work–life balance suggests a potential conflict, or imbalance,
between work and ‘life’. Too much work would seem to imply too little
‘life’ – the latter term representing everything we do when we are not engaged
in paid work. In this chapter, I will argue that the notion of ‘balance’ in this
context of paid work versus leisure and unpaid work is more complex than
a straightforward metaphor of communicating vessels suggests. Drawing on
the work of Gary Becker and Juliet Schor, I will explore how we can conceive
of both work and leisure as products of households that make more or less predictable
decisions regarding how to use the time and money required by both
areas of life. This approach will be complemented by sociological work on the
achievement of social status through consumption and how this causes people
to live lives that are busier and more consumption-focused than scholars
envisioned around 50 years ago. By addressing the issue of work–life balance
from a more historical and sociological angle, I hope to show how the choices
people make in this area are always socially embedded. This chapter thus seeks
to clarify that apparently irrational decisions can be explained in large part by
a combination of labor market dynamics, people’s notions of social hierarchy,
and an awareness of the fact that we tend to evaluate our own quality of life by
comparing it to that of others, often in materialist terms.