The weekend is 100 years old – but have ‘skiveday Fridays’ and hybrid working ruined it for everyone?

The traditional two-day weekend, a cornerstone of modern work-life balance, marks its 100th anniversary amidst significant challenges posed by evolving employment models. What began as a revolutionary concept to boost productivity and worker well-being is now experiencing a profound transformation, raising questions about its future relevance and societal impact.

Henry Ford

In 1926, Henry Ford's decision to grant his factory workers both Saturdays and Sundays off, without a reduction in pay, fundamentally reshaped the working week. This move, while seemingly altruistic, was also a strategic business decision aimed at combating high absenteeism rates caused by the exhausting nature of assembly line work. Ford recognized that rested workers were more productive, and he also saw an opportunity to stimulate demand for his automobiles, noting that people with more leisure time would require more transportation for day trips.

Ford's innovation was not entirely novel, as the idea of a shorter work week had been advocated by trade unions and religious groups for decades. However, his industrial influence propelled the two-day weekend into mainstream adoption, solidifying it as a standard practice across the United States by 1938, partly as a response to rising unemployment during the Great Depression. This historical context underscores the economic and social forces that initially championed the weekend as a period of collective rest and personal freedom.

Soviet Union

The article highlights a stark contrast to Ford's model by recounting the Soviet Union's experiment with a fragmented work week between 1929 and 1940. In an attempt to maximize factory output, citizens were given a random day off every seven, ensuring that 80% of the population was always working. This policy, however, proved disastrous for social cohesion and worker morale.

Without a shared day off, families struggled to spend time together, children were often unsupervised, and extended gatherings became impossible. A disgruntled worker's letter to Pravda vividly illustrated the isolation, stating, "It is no holiday if you have to have it alone." The projected productivity spike never materialized; instead, the workforce became demoralized and listless, leading to the eventual abandonment of the policy. This historical example serves as a powerful testament to the importance of collective leisure time for societal well-being and economic efficiency.

Pedro Gomes

Professor Pedro Gomes, an economist at Birkbeck, University of London, and author of Friday is the New Saturday, offers insights into the evolving nature of the weekend across different life stages. He notes that the weekend experience transforms significantly, from a period of social bonding with friends in youth to family time with children and eventually grandchildren in later life. Despite these personal evolutions, the weekend has historically remained a shared experience, fostering collective rituals and cultural touchstones.

However, Gomes's work also implicitly addresses the contemporary erosion of these shared experiences. The article points out that modern practices like hybrid working and the rise of 'skiveday Fridays' — where Friday becomes a de facto day off for personal errands or leisure — blur the traditional boundaries of the weekend. Emails are answered on Sundays, and household chores spill into work-from-home Fridays, fragmenting leisure time and diminishing the distinct separation between work and rest. This blurring challenges the very definition of the weekend, transforming it from a universally understood block of collective time into a more individualized and often interrupted period.