The total amount of work that a person or group is expected or required to do.
Compound of 'work' (from Old English 'worc') and 'load' (from Old English 'hlad'). The term became common in industrial contexts in the 1900s to quantify labor distribution.
Studies show that workload matters less for happiness than workload *predictability*—people with heavier but organized work feel less stressed than people with lighter but chaotic work because uncertainty stresses our brains.
Unpaid domestic/care work historically invisible in 'workload' calculations; women's labor undercount normalized unequal burden distribution in home and workplace.
Include domestic, care, and emotional labor in workload discussions. Recognize all forms of work—paid, unpaid, visible, invisible.
Feminist labor analysis has made visible women's unpaid work; recognizing full workload (including care) is essential to equity conversations.
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