Prof. Susan Lambert has spent her whole career working on work.
“It was a no-brainer,” said the leading national scholar of work and family. “There are enormous wealth disparities, by race especially. Those disparities are lodged in our institutions—in education, in our social networks, but they're also in our workplaces.”
A faculty member at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice (formerly SSA) for nearly four decades, Lambert’s research has not only deepened our understanding of labor practices, but also changed how we work.
When Lambert and frequent collaborator Prof. Julia Henly began documenting the experiences of low-paid workers, they identified a major—yet fixable—problem: work schedules.
For many hourly workers, the unpredictability of daily schedules can disrupt all parts of life from family dinner time to childcare to sleep.
“Susan’s specific focus on work scheduling was profound for me,” said Erin Devorah Carreon, a doctoral student at Crown working with Lambert. “It’s so important to think about how our work schedules, and the control we have over them, affects our daily lives.”
Lambert’s randomized trials in major national retailers have shown that not only are predictable work schedules better for people, they are also good for business. Often citing her findings and testimony, labor organizers and public policymakers have...
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