The Pandemic Has Exposed the Fallacy of the “Ideal Worker”

To be sure, we’re seeing the erosion of the ideal of an employee whose family responsibilities are kept tastefully out of sight. 

It’s because there’s still a widespread reverence for the “ideal worker.” We commonly define the ideal worker as someone who starts working in early adulthood and continues, full-time and full force, for 40 years straight. The concept reflects a breadwinner-homemaker model that dates back to the Industrial Revolution and functioned fairly well thr