The Overworked American

She spent decades studying Americans as workers and as consumers.

Her many books include The Overworked American, The Overspent American, and, most recently, Four Days a Week, the life-changing solution for reducing employee stress, improving well-being, and working smarter.

I spoke with Julie back in May, which is when this conversation first aired.

I was keen to talk with her in part because that's when we transitioned from airing five days a week down to four.

So, Julie, talk to me about the mid-20th century predictions of what we would do with all this leisure time.

Yeah.

Well, it's funny because I subtitled my book, The Overworked American, The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, because when I started looking into what was going on with working hours, I was surprised to find, first of all, those predictions that the four-day week would be, we would have gotten it by the 70s.

The the idea of what they called the crisis of leisure time.