Now globalization and the rise of post-industrial time ( we can work anywhere at any time) is putting the question to us again. How do we want to spend our days and nights? How do we want to live? Some employers want us to work harder and longer; a "natural" response to the rise of global competition resulting in the need to do more with less.

The response thus far in the U.S. has largely been to find a "private" solution to the demands for more of our time. Taken together, millions of people, particularly younger people, are as you say, pushing back. Interestingly, the French people just elected a new President who campaigned on a platform that the French people needed to work MORE.

The tug of war over time has been with us since people put down their plows and went into the factory. But now the whole world can work 'twenty-four seven'. Will the private solution, or even the collective will to resist "global time" be enough to establish a new implicit social understanding? Perhaps another way of asking the sam e question would be to ask: How much will younger people be willing to sacrifice as others around the world work more? Will time, evne more so than wages, represent a core driver when companies make investment decisions?

Let's not be naive about time. If this is the new friction point in the work place, we may not even be warm yet.

* * * * * *
Russ, what an insightful comment. I think you might be right in that we are framing new issues with an old fram still. And the bleeding edge is how we think about time more than values. Maybe they are not so interwoven as we think.

-Penelope

I agree with you that the issue of juggling work and family is becoming more of an issue for a greater percentage of men. (In fact, I've thought about whether it was a mistake to focus our company on helping moms do this.) At the same time, I do think that in most cases, it is the mom having the bulk of the home responsibilities still – my husband is the only one I know who found and did the first interview with our nanny!

And it seems that such networks and tools are not available to men. In fact, men seeking such things are often made to feel like losers for seeking support instead of being heroes.