In Sociology, I recently worked on a project where I interviewed my Mom about her experience as a young mother balancing work with a new baby and connected it to a book by Arlie Russel Hochschild called The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. Hochschild studies in her book a large American corporation while looking at how employees manage their work and family time, ranging from the top executives to the factory workers. By interviewing my Mom, I was able to see the similarities she shared along with the differences to the workers in The Time Bind. The questions I asked her were mainly focused on how she managed work with a young child, the process of going on maternity leave, and the support she received from those close to her. My mom found it very difficult to manage work with a new born baby as she was a single mom, when she returned home from her work day she was still “working” doing baby duty 24/7 until she would drop me off at daycare the next morning.
A similarity my Mom shared with the lower level workers in The Time Bind was that they were afraid for their job security when asking for part-time work or a cut back of hours after having a child. It was the fear for both my Mom and the workers that their jobs were easily replaceable and the companies that they worked for could hire someone else to do their job, who did not have a child and wanted to work full time. Something that many workers faced in Hochschild’s The Time Bind was balancing the work at home or the “second shift” as she called it with their spouses (182). This was a significant difference my Mom had with many of the workers in the book, she was a single parent so she did not share the work at home with anyone she did it all herself.
After finding the similarities and differences my Mom shared with workers in Hochschild’s The Time Bind, I was very interested to see other reader’s reactions to the book and if they shared any of the same experiences. I analyzed reviews on Goodreads, trying to find readers connections between their lives and the book. One reviewer noted how reading The Time Bind brought back “so many challenges” of trying to juggle a “fulfilling career” and “home life with children” (Laura Torgesen). Another reviewer describes how she connects in many ways to the book and it gives her ideas on how to “motivate” her “environment and pupils” on ways to manage balancing work and family life (Adriana). One reviewer commented that the struggles parents face in The Time Bind “is happening in our Country and to some extent throughout the world” (John). From the reviews I read on Goodreads it was clear that most readers shared the same struggles as the workers did in Hochschild’s book. It is evident that the difficulty of balancing work, whether it be part or full-time, and the work of family life at home is something not only my Mom, workers in The Time Bind and readers struggle with but probably many people across the world also face.
Works Cited
Adriana. “We think we were free but…” Rev. of The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. Goodreads 17 January 2016. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
Hochschild, Arlie Russel. The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. Holt Paperbacks, 2001.
John. “Initially I approached this book thinking…” Rev. of The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. Goodreads 25 January 2009. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.
Torgesen, Laura. “Arlie Russel Hochschild’s book The Time Bind…” Rev. of The Time Bind: When Work Becomes Home and Home Becomes Work. Goodreads 24 September 2008. Web. 26 Feb. 2017.