Why too much work and too little time is hurting workers and companies—and how a proven workplace redesign can benefit employees and the bottom line

Today's ways of working are not working—even for professionals in "good" jobs. Responding to global competition and pressure from financial markets, companies are asking employees to do more with less, even as new technologies normalize 24/7 job expectations. In Overload, Erin Kelly and Phyllis Moen document how this new intensification of work creates chronic stress, leading to burnout, attrition, and underperformance. "Flexible" work policies and corporate lip service about "work-life balance" don't come close to fixing the problem. But this unhealthy and unsustainable situation can be changed—and Overload shows how.

Drawing on five years of research, including hundreds of interviews with employees and managers, Kelly and Moen tell the story of a major experiment that they helped design and implement at a Fortune 500 firm. The company adopted creative and practical work redesigns that gave workers more control over how and where they worked and encouraged managers to evaluate performance in new ways. The result? Employees' health, wellbeing, and ability to manage their personal and work lives improved, while the company benefitted from higher job satisfaction and lower turnover. And, as Kelly and Moen show, such changes can—and should—be made on a wide scale.

Complete with advice about ways that employees, managers, and corporate leaders can begin to question and fix one of today's most serious workplace problems, Overload is an inspiring account of how rethinking and redesigning work could transform our lives and companies.

"Kelly and Moen document conclusively and comprehensively that overload rather than work-family conflict is the core problem facing professional and managerial workers today. This is an important finding and major reevaluation coming from scholars who have helped define the study of work and family. Offering an insightful account of an effective workplace innovation to combat overload, Kelly and Moen bring to life the people they study, creating a moving portrait of overload and the efforts of workers to forge lives around it."—Pamela Stone, author of Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home