this post was submitted on 14 Mar 2024

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Whoever invented the eight hour five day work week is Satan. (lemmy.world)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 156 points 8 months ago (6 children)

The idea came from a British guy called Robert Owen in the 19th century. It was a huge step forward in workers rights seeing as it was fairly normal for factories to work from sunrise to sunset to try and maximise their output.

Typical working hours were 10-18 hrs a day 6 to 7 days a week

I'm not saying I love working 8hrs a day and modern society can definitely do better but this was a positive step forward in history and should be celebrated... celebrated isn't quite the right word but I hope you get what I mean

[–] [email protected] 122 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, anyone calling the creator of the 40-hour work week "Satan" is obviously ignorant of the history of labour.

As you said, we can definitely do better, but at the time it was (quite literally) revolutionary.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

Yup, we need to get 6 hour 4 days a week now, so people in 2100 can call us satanic for wasting so many hours working.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 8 months ago

Appreciated for what it was at the time. I get you.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Reminded me of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvk_XylEmLo

It is more made to debunk the idea that capitalism has given humanity more leisure time. But relevant here too because makes the case that historically people worked even less than the 'typical' week we have today.

It makes me wonder if the reason we mostly feel like working 40+ hours is too much is because people really don't seem to have worked that much until the industrial age.

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[–] [email protected] 92 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (5 children)

Whoever invented the eight hour five day work week is Satan.

Unions. Unions won the five day eight hour workweek after heavy, sometimes bloody conflicts with employers. Before that it was common for workweek to be 10 or 12 hours a day.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Too many people are ignorant of the role Unions played in American history. I assume they were brought up in places where the GOP controls the schools.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Before that it was common for workweek to be 10 or 12 hours.

10-12 hours per day*, dangerous typo

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago

Technically, if your shift is long enough and timed properly, you can have daytime going in and coming out.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

God bless unions. Now can they negotiate a four day work week?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The bad news is their power has been systematically eroded for a long time. The good news is they've made a bit of a comeback in the last couple of years. Hopefully this trend continues.

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[–] [email protected] 75 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Op, you don't seem aware that getting the work week down to this took a very concerted effort

[–] [email protected] 35 points 8 months ago (4 children)

While I agree, the amount of productivity that's increased since the 5 day work week was established has made it reasonable to once again change the norm. That, or pay workers equivalent to the increase in productivity that has happened. It's all going somewhere.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

We can keep applying yet more effort. This is better than 6 day work week, but we can do even better

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Sure, but it seems ignorant of said progress when op referred to it as created by Satan.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Not if you think of Satan as a questioner of authority and bringer of change. We could use another Satan

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago

Lol yes but I don't think that's what they meant.

[–] [email protected] 66 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Keep in mind that once upon a time it was 6 days and 14 hours per day.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Keep in mind that before that, people worked much less in winter and still less than today in summer

[–] [email protected] 45 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Admittedly, they were completely at the mercy of disease, herd migration, had no plumbing, buried astounding numbers of their children, were not the apex predator, didn't have mattresses and when injuries happened they often healed poorly and painfully.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

And if I worked less hours in my office job, all that would return?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (10 children)

Your office job is incompatible with the pre-agrarian lifestyle you described earlier.

You don't get modern luxuries AND the minimal hours required as a hunter gatherer, just as I can't get the speed of my car AND the cardiovascular benefits of my bike simultaneously.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

He's not talking about "pre-agrarian;" even medieval peasants got more time off than we do today.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (12 children)

That's mostly a silly meme that's been seized upon.

When they worked, it was from dawn to dusk doing hard labour. And if the harvest wasn't good, they died because the Lord took his tithe regardless.

And that's not to mention the household labour, all of which we take for granted (consider chopping wood every time you wanted heat, mending clothes or the ridiculous process of cleaning them.) Or looking after farm animals etc. The only stuff that's counted in that 150 days silliness is working the land which was only a portion of their real labour.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Yeah I don't think so ...

We can both acknowledge progress and an extreme lack of what that progress should/could have been.

All you have to do is look to countries like China and even Japan where people literally work themselves to death.

Should we be working 40 hours a week? No but let's not pretend that the situation has only gotten worse...

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago

That's much debated, actually.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 8 months ago (6 children)

Labor unions are the Satan to which you are referring. Labor unions brought you many infernal things: the weekend, lunch breaks, paid vacation, social security, minimum wage, FMLA, 8-hour work days, OSHA, sick leave, child labor laws, etc.

Satan indeed!

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The guy who made the 8hr/day 5day/week schedule was a saint

[–] [email protected] 38 points 8 months ago (1 children)

That's was unions

[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Call me a devil's advocate, but Satan was pretty based in this case. Also have you seen the advocates for God? They kinda suck

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 8 months ago (2 children)

What a shitty take. Go learn what the normal conditions were BEFORE the 8/day 5/week standard.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Just because things were worse in the past doesn't mean they can't be better in the future.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You are very right, it's just that saying "whoever invented the thing that's better than what was before is Satan" is kinda unfair to be people who fought for the 8/8/8 system. The focus should be onto whom hinder or even regress progress

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 8 months ago (2 children)

But the text specifically says the person who made the last big improvement is bad for having done it.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Is anyone going to tell them what it was before?

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (8 children)

Greetings from Scotland, I'd gladly take a 40 minute workday 🤣

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (4 children)

What? Here in India it's 12 hrs a day 7 days a week. One paid holiday per year, For the new year

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/07/india-debate-on-70-hour-workweek-illegal-or-road-to-greatness.html

Indians currently work an average of 47.7 hours a week — higher than the U.S. (36.4), the UK (35.9), and Germany (34.4), according to the International Labour Organization.

Infosys founder Narayana Murthy recently sparked a controversy on social media when he said young people should be working 70 hours a week to boost India’s economy.

Perhaps it's common for the workweek to be that long in the informal economy, but the official data at least doesn't reflect that.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I live above the arctic circle, please don't make me work 24/7 during the summer since the sun is always out.

I'd love the part where I wouldn't have to work November through January though.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It used to be dawn till dusk 6 days a week, bro.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I don't want my work day tied to length of sunlight in either direction. But I do want a four day work week!

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Rather, "whoever invented weekends was a genius."

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago

Yeah, I try to be grateful for the progress we have made, given that labor used to be even more exploitative than it is now. Still, we have miles to go.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

I am not a religious person, but I'm sure that 40 working hours per week is not even close to what is attributed to Satan.

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