October: National Work And Family Month

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[GirlyGirl2003]

Click the titles below to navigate this web site... Introduction Home Page & Breaking News Join Our E-Mail List + UnSubscribe Please Complete Our Questionnaire Help build Take Back Your Time Day in your community Engage Public Officials We Need Your Help! - NEW! The Time Day Handbook + PDF Flyer + Order The Handbook Handbook Excerpts + Organizing TBYTD + Teach-In's & Study Circles + How To Pitch A Story Time Day T-Shirts + Adult Medium + Adult Large + Adult Extra Large Teach Ins - NEW! 50+ Things You Can Do Publicity Materials Posters You Can Print - NEW! Current Newsletter September 2003 Newsletter Archives + Jul 2003 Newsletter + May 2003 Newsletter + Mar 2003 Newsletter + Jan 2003 Newsletter + Dec 2002 Newsletter Time Day Events Contact Us + Local & Regional Volunteers Endorse Time Day + Current Endorsements Contribute Financially Share This Web Site Press Releases Time Day In The News Time Day Links - NEW! To Other Related Web Sites Suggested Reading Committee Members The Official Handbook

TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY is a nationwide initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork, over-scheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our families and relationships, our communities and our environment. Breaking News... NEW! Engaging Public Officials To Promote Take Back Your Time Day Activities. We need your help! On September 8, 2003, the Senate passed Resolution 210 by unanimous consent declaring October National Work and Family Month. Encourage your local city councils, etc. to support the Senate by endorsing TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY. Complete Text Of SRes210 - PDF File File Name: senate_resolution_210.pdf File Size: 24 KB Download Time: Approximately 15 seconds with a 33.6 modem. The September, 2003 edition of our on-line Newsletter is now available. Enjoy! Take Back Your Time Day T-Shirts are now available! Adult Sizes: Medium, Large and Extra Large. NEW! Time Day Links (to other related web sites) Now Available! 50 Plus* Pretty Quick Things You Can Do For Take Back Your Time Day - PDF File File Name: 50_things_for_time_day.pdf. File Size: 80 KB Download Time: Approximately 1 minute with a 33.6 modem. Note: You will need the Acrobat® Reader® to view and print these PDF files. WHY SHOULD YOU CARE? Are you, or your friends or relatives, working more now but enjoying it less? Does your family's schedule feel like a road race? If so, you're not alone. Millions of Americans are overworked, over-scheduled and just plain stressed out. IT STARTS AT WORK. We're putting in longer hours on the job now than we did in the 1950s, despite promises of a coming age of leisure before the year 2000. In fact, we're working more than medieval peasants did, and more than the citizens of any other industrial country. Mandatory overtime is at near record levels, in spite of a recession. On average, we work nearly nine full weeks (350 hours) LONGER per year than our peers in Western Europe do. Working Americans average a little over two weeks of vacation per year, while Europeans average five to six weeks. OVERWORK HURTS ALL OF US IN DIFFERENT WAYS. Overwork threatens our health. It leads to fatigue, accidents and injuries. It reduces time for exercise and encourages consumption of calorie-laden fast foods. Job stress and burnout costs our economy more than $200 billion a year. Overwork threatens our marriages, families and relationships as we find less time for each other, less time to care for our children and elders, less time to just hang out. It weakens our communities. We have less time to know our neighbors, supervise our young people, and volunteer. It reduces employment as fewer people are hired and then required to work longer hours, or are hired for poor part-time jobs without benefits. It leaves many of us with little time to vote, much less be informed, active citizens. It leaves us little time for ourselves, for self-development, or for spiritual growth. It leads to growing neglect and abuse of pets. It even contributes to the destruction of our environment. Studies show that lack of time encourages use of convenience and throwaway items and reduces recycling. TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY IS NOT ANTI-WORK. Useful and creative work is essential to happiness. But American life has gotten way out of balance. Producing and consuming more have become the single-minded obsession of the American economy, while other values -- strong families and communities, good health and a clean environment, active citizenship and social justice, time for nature and the soul -- are increasingly neglected. THE CHALLENGES GO BEYOND WORKTIME. Contemporary Americans complain of unprecedented levels of busyness in everyday life. They worry about frenetic schedules, hurried children, couples with no time together, families who rarely eat meals together, and an onslaught of "hidden work" from proliferating emails, junk mail, and telemarketing calls. The Girl Scouts recently introduced a "Stress Free" merit badge for today's harried young girls. WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT THIS EPIDEMIC OF TIME PRESSURE? On Friday, October 24, 2003, thousands, perhaps millions, of Americans will JUST SAY NO to the overwork, over-scheduling and overstress that threaten to overwhelm our lives. They'll take the day or part of it off work, and join in hundreds of activities to initiate a much-needed national conversation about work/life balance and how we can reclaim it. The date falls nine weeks before the end of the year, making the point that we Americans now work nine weeks more each year than Western Europeans do. In major American cities and many smaller communities, colleges and universities will sponsor teach-ins about overwork and life balance. We'll talk about how overwork and lack of time affect us -- at home, in our workplaces and communities. Similar events will occur in places of worship, union halls, businesses and non-profits. Outdoor TAKE BACK YOUR TIME fairs will feature speakers, entertainment and ways to get involved in reclaiming your life. Our model is the first Earth Day, which brought a new environmental awareness to America, leading within two years to the passage of the most significant ecological legislation in our history -- the EPA, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air and Water Acts. The main goal of TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY is to call attention to the problem and begin the public conversation about what to do about it. Some of the solutions will be personal, each in our own lives. Others will be cultural, as we evolve new norms about life balance. Still others will involve voluntary changes in the workplace and children's activity programs, or changes through collective bargaining agreements. We'll talk about why work/life balance is good for both employees and employers; about how to create decent part-time jobs and about solutions for low-income workers who can't afford to work less. We will also discuss policy and legislative solutions about which there will be sharp disagreement. We welcome viewpoints from across the political spectrum. Some of us will favor government policy approaches to work issues such as vacations and mandatory overtime, pointing out that countries like the Netherlands, France, and Germany have shown that shorter work time, balanced lifestyles, and high levels of productivity are compatible goals. Others involved in TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY will be skeptical about government mandates and prefer other approaches such as tax relief targeted to working families. The stance of TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY is to let a vigorous public debate begin about a problem we all face. The movement for a more balanced American life will begin on TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY, but it won't stop there. In every community, Take Back Your Time organizations will develop campaigns to win personal, cultural, workplace, and political solutions to time famine. TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY will produce a broad and non-partisan coalition for change. This issue can unite groups who seldom talk to each other -- family values conservatives and the women's movement, labor unions and environmentalists, clergy and doctors, advocates for social justice, enlightened business leaders and the "slow food" and "simple living" movements. This issue affects people across class, gender, race and ideological lines. We are building a national TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY working group and looking for volunteers to build events in every community and on every campus. We'll be producing humorous and provocative posters, clever bumper stickers, kits for reaching your local media and community organizations, a Take Back Your Time Day Handbook, and a web site (www.timeday.org) with links to organizations, resources, speakers and other valuable information. We need your help, your enthusiasm, your ideas, and even your financial support. Be the first to start a TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY committee in your town, and join us now, because there's no present like the time. For more information: If you would like to stay informed about future TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY activities, click here to join our e-mail list. If you know others who would like to know about TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY, click here to send them a personal e-mail. If your group or organization would like to be involved in sponsoring or supporting TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY, click here to register your interest or e-mail John de Graaf or phone 206-443-6747.

Main Menu TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY is a project of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP) at Cornell University. TAKE BACK YOUR TIME DAY is an initiative of The Simplicity Forum, a leadership alliance for the Simplicity Movement -- Promoting and Honoring Simple, Just, and Sustainable Ways of Life for All. Site Hosting By The Simple Living Network Contact the Webmaster

[Texas Eagle]

Hell! EVERY month should be national work and family month!

[GirlyGirl2003]

HEHE! Sure! I think Family should be in front of work. I posted this because over the past few months, I've heard so much about how companies and requiring so much more work than normal from those who are still employed. America was founded by farmers who spent a lot of hours in the winter months with their families. This is something I wish we could still have, but we can't unless we live in a farm today. Rush was commenting recently that stress levels are very high now for families, higher than in the past. I see this all around me. People suffering from massive levels of anxiety, and stress. Not just work related, but life in general has become much harder than it has to be, in my opinion.

[chicagolady]

Please go to work! MILLIONS of folks who are on Welfare /and/or Public aid are depending on you! Not to mention those Illegal Aliens who are expecting there will be enough money for their kids to go to school! And where will the money come from when our communist Politicians vote to give them legal status and Licenses!
Now Go To Work!! NOW!

[GirlyGirl2003]

Thats a great point! We cant take more time off to be with our families! We have to work so that criminals in prison, illegal aliens / welfare recepients dont starve to death