Customer Reviews

Married to the Job: Why We Live to Work and What We Can Do About It

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This work by Ilene Philipson tackles the American epidemic of emotional over-investment in the workplace. She makes the case for the growth of the problem, then follows with analysis of the causes and the implications of this pervasive cultural change from both individual and social perspectives. She illustrates the book throughout with cases from her clinical counseling practice.

I respectfully disagree with the prior reviewer who suggests that this book is for women only. I and several of my male friends have read the book and found it informative and useful in thinking through our professional situations and personal attitudes toward work.

I highly recommend this book to anyone, male or female, who is asking themselves hard questions about why they or someone they care about has been working so hard for so long and not really understanding why they're doing it.

Few years after the book was published, its message seems to stand out even clearer. Especially true in companies who are leading the market and/or trying to be part of the "new revolution", the work-life balance is getting harder to find and keep.

Looking at how a lot of my friends and I work and live, it certainly seems that the trend, even though few would admit it, is this: work longer hours in the hope of making the world better (but who benefits?), postponing leisure for an undetermined time, most often in a distant future, when we'll be done changing the world...

I found the book very relevant, for men and women alike. I would highly recommend it to anyone who believes "working to live" is more human than "living to work".

If you're a man and you'd like some perspective on why you work as much as you do----don't buy this book. The author admits that 85% of her clients are women, so perhaps the information is helpful if you are female. But for me (a man) it missed the mark as to why men work so much and what we can do to work less and feel like adequate providers (or just keep our jobs, for that matter!!).