LABOR DAY: Brief points on the history, predictions, and effects of the American workweek (reading time: 5 min.)
By Mary Boza Crimmins
Saturday. 6:24 a.m. My first thought: “I’m off today.” My next thoughts leapt straight to my to-do list. Laundry, yuck! Grocery shop, oh no! Vacuum, maybe? Catch up on my previous workweek, UGH! I’m feeling ambitious, so I’ll throw in an hour workout to make up for not exercising enough Monday - Friday. Hmm? The common theme, as you can discern, is work. After all, isn’t it supposed to be six days on, one day off? Nevertheless, even though I’m a workaholic, I’m convinced the number of hours many Americans work in a week is too much.
The current workweek can be traced back to 1922, when the Ford Motor Company went from a 6-day workweek to a 5-day one. The reasons were proclaimed as being altruistic. The company’s president and Henry’s son, Edsel Ford, stated:
“Every man needs more than one day a week for rest and recreation….The Ford Company always has sought to promote [an] ideal home life for its employees. We believe that in order to live properly every man should have more time to spend with his family.”
In 1926, Ford influenced even more societal changes with the 5-day 40-hour workweek. The motivating force behind this was productivity. More automobiles could be produced in this timeframe than in a longer, more exhausting week. (History.com. “Ford Factory workers get 40-hour week”.)
Years later, the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 was part of Franklin Roosevelt’s depression-era economic stimulus, the New Deal. The 1938 version established 44 hours as the maximum. In 1940, the workweek was reduced to 40 hours. Francis Perkins, FDR’s Labor Secretary, pushed for the Act. She is said to have been profoundly affected when she witnessed young women “jumping out of the windows” to their death during the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. (NBC News. “Where did the 40-hour workweek come from?”)
We Americans seemingly have a 40-hour workweek embedded in our culture. However, and I don’t think this will come as a surprise to you, according to Gallop surveys, a majority of salaried workers report working well over 40 hours per week. In light of actual hours dedicated to work, predictions about much shorter workweeks are amusing. In a CNN Business article, “The four-day work week”, Annalyn Kurtz shares these historical (hysterical) predictions:
In 1930, economist, John Maynard Keynes, predicted technological advancements would lead to a 15-hour workweek.
“Evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley predicted a 2-day workweek.”
“Both men warned that someday, we would have so much leisure time we would be bored out of our minds.”
A 1965 Senate subcommittee predicted a 14-hour workweek by the year 2000 with at least 7 weeks of vacation time. (Perhaps the Senators confused their workweek with the rest of America’s.)
The explanation for our long hours is we work more to consume more. But then, do we have time to enjoy what we’ve spent our hard-earned money on? In a Business Insider article, “The Real Reason for the 40-Hour Workweek”, David Cain suggests that “big-business” profits from an overworked population because the lack of free time leads to the willingness to “pay a lot more for convenience and gratification.”
Recent scientific research reveals what Ford Motor Company understood decades ago: more work is accomplished in fewer hours with rested workers. A study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that “those who worked 55 hours per week performed more poorly on some mental tasks than those who worked 40 hours per week.” (Philip Sopher. “Where the five-day workweek came from.” The Atlantic.Com. August 21, 2014.) Several studies on the effects of long working hours were summarized by Tom Popomoranis in Inc. magazine. Notable points are that after working 50 hours per week, productivity declines, and relationship problems increase. Excessive hours also, not surprisingly, contribute to health issues such as weight gain and depression.
The COVID pandemic has led to many discussions about whether changes in the workplace and work expectations will be permanent. The hope of this particular workaholic is not only that I slow down, but so does our culture. We must remember the lessons recently learned. Slow life down. Appreciate each other more. And work fewer hours.
(Thanks for reading my blog. Your critical feedback is valued. Please comment.)
#freelancewriter #contentwriter #copywriter #smallbusinessowner #bolgger #CrimminsCommunications #internalcommunications #externalcommunications #ontheblogtoday #writerforhire #smallbusinesssupport
