The Weekend Effect: The Life-Changing Benefits of Taking Time Off and Challenging the Cult of Overwork

Journalist and novelist Onstad (Everybody Has Everything) makes a compelling but flawed case for the need for leisure. The book begins with a bit of history, explaining the differences between contemporary and pre–industrial revolution conceptions of leisure. Onstad’s tone is hopeful as she details the benefits of longer weekends for both work and workers. The book explores how companies such as Basecamp and Amazon are attempting to implement shorter work weeks and encourage employees to disconnect on weekends. The section that details good ways to fill in leisure time—including art, nature, and volunteering—is encouraging, but the book doesn’t adequately address the role of class. Early on, Onstad reveals that white-collar workers work more than their blue-collar counterparts, a “leisure gap” that shouldn’t be “trivialized” according to the writer. Though it’s fair to say that weekends and leisure are a “cross-class” issue, the book never addresses whether less work for people who make less money and have unstable hours actually translates into more leisure. A passage on the importance of work/life balance to the social fabric is powerful, but too brief. The need for leisure is a worthwhile subject, but Onstad’s book, while a good start, is ultimately a superficial survey of the issue. [em](May) [/em]