To work too hard or make someone work too much, often causing exhaustion or poor quality work.
From Old English 'ofer' (over) + 'weorc' (work). The 'over-' prefix originally meant physically above something, but evolved to mean 'too much' or 'excessive.' This linguistic shift happened because doing things 'over the top' felt excessive.
The Industrial Revolution gave us the word 'workaholic,' but 'overwork' appeared in English 500 years earlier—our ancestors were already stressed about burnout before factories even existed!
Overwork has disproportionately affected women in both paid and unpaid labor. The 'second shift' (work + household labor) remains gendered, with women globally bearing unequal burden despite formal equality.
When discussing overwork, acknowledge the gendered distribution of labor (paid and unpaid) and avoid framing exhaustion as an individual productivity problem rather than systemic structural issue.
["unsustainable workload","labor inequity","burnout"]
Feminist labor organizing by women (IWW, garment strikes, domestic worker movements) made visible the hidden work that fuels economies.
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