This paper identifies particular propositions and claimed empirical realizations that make up the intensification thesis and examines them with regard to their educational applicability, particularly to elementary teachers' workloads. The propositions claimed within the intensification thesis indicate that intensification: (1) leads to reduced time for relaxation; (2) leads to lack of time to keep up with one's field; (3) reduces opportunities for interaction with colleagues; (4) creates chronic work overload that fosters dependency on outside experts; (5) reduces the quality of service by encouraging corner-cutting; (6) leads to diversification of responsibility; (7) creates and reinforces scarcity of preparation time; and (8) is voluntarily supported by many teachers and misrecognized as professionalism. This paper also reports findings from an investigation of the relationship between teacher preparation time and the intensification thesis. Data are presented from interviews with elementary teachers (N=28) in which teachers were questioned about their uses and perceptions of preparation time and about their broader understanding of their work as elementary school teachers outside their scheduled class responsibilities. The study showed that intensification is a real problem for teachers and that it explains many of the changes being witnessed in teachers' work, but it does not fully explain them. More free or preparation time is only a partial solution to the problems. (IAH)