How can we change work for the better?

How do you start your work day? 

Maybe you open up your inbox. Messages are in from last night and there’s a meeting in 30 minutes. A project you said you’d work on yesterday still sits on your to-do list.

Or maybe you start by clocking in, heading back into a storage room. There are items to unpack from a pallet that you’ll later put on the store shelves. Or it starts with a kid’s play area, one you need to clean and prepare for toddlers. Or with a house visit, for an elderly patient aging in place.

And between that work, there’s other work—forms to fill out, reports about what you’ve done, messages that need responses. And if you have kids, there’s the work at home… unpaid.

It can be a lot to do, and a lot to keep in our heads all at once. Why has work turned into such a grind for so many Americans? What does overwork and stress from work do to us? And how can we change work for the better, no matter what career we’re in?

We speak with author and journalist Brigid Schulte about her new book “Over Work,” what she’s found about America’s obsession with working, and what our work culture is doing to our individual and collective health.