
A history of the two-day weekend - mgiannopoulos
https://qz.com/969245/it-took-a-century-to-create-the-weekend-and-only-a-decade-to-undo-it/
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swsieber
Hmm... Reading this article about the transition from a 6 to 5 day work week
makes me think it's possible to transition to 4.

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vinceguidry
I'd love to see an 8 day week with three days off. The five day workweek is a
great rhythm. Four days on, three days off just seems too decadent. I think
the ideal would be 5 on, three off with 6 hour workdays.

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ajuc
For a few months I worked 3 days a week. It's decadent, maybe, but it's
awesome. By the time Monday came I was thirsty to get back to work.

The only problem was - it's harder to keep in mind what you worked on the last
week when you get back, but it's not a big deal (just make more notes, commit
more often, and hibernate computer instead of shutting it down).

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swsieber
I'd be fine breaking up the work days with a break day in between - I'd
probably avoid it some weeks for a longer weekend event, but I think I could
do 2 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on, 2 days off...

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bryan11
This quote seems key: “Time is now currency: It is not passed but spent,”
wrote historian E. P. Thompson.

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sdiq
"But the week is man-made, arbitrary, a substance not found in nature."

One thing that occasionally makes me wonder is the universality of the day of
the week. Everywhere you go - with the possible exception of the people living
on either sides of the imaginary International Date Line - people are in
agreement on which day of the week it is. Just imagine the white Christian
colonialist coming to Africa, or some other part of the world, and finding
native Muslim populations and yet both agree on what day of the week it is.

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jjgreen
When I started school, I misheard the hours as 2 days on, 5 days off. Come the
Wednesday, I was rather put out (and remain so).

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teh_klev
Reminds me of what a mate's kid said after he got home from the first day at
primary school - he genuinely thought it was for one day only. Then there was
the dismayed look on his face after it was explained that this routine was now
for the next eighteen years of his life :)

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sandworm101
Weekends were never a universal thing. They were for very specific people,
while a huge number of us were expected to work them regardless. Setting aside
the historical male/female devides (no weekends for moms) we just expect
certain jobs to be there. Priests and nuns work weekends, have done for
centuries. Cops, food service, health care providers, prisons and the
entertainment industry to name a few. The sat-sun weekend has always been a
luxury. Those that lament its passing as some sort of societal shift show
thier colours.

I write this as a i sit on a monday morning waiting for the work i did over
the weekend to be read and evaluated by clients worth far more than i will
ever be. They dont work weekends.

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AlexAltea
> Priests and nuns work weekends, have done for centuries. Cops, food service,
> health care providers, prisons and the entertainment industry to name a few.

While such jobs require indeed people working on weekends, it doesn't mean
that the workers themselves need to be present 7 days a week. It's possible to
uniformly distribute 2 free days per week among workers and still guaranteeing
24/7 service.

> Those that lament its passing as some sort of societal shift show thier
> colours.

Not sure what "their colours" mean. Why should we lower our expectations to
the lowest working conditions? Instead, why don't we all aspire to
redistributing our working ours to ensure a fair share of free time.

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sandworm101
If you arent getting sat-sun off then i seriously doubt you have any stable
2day weekend. These are shift workers. By "colours" i mean that they are from
a background where sat-sun weekends are a thing. Thier parents were not shift
workers. They expect to have sundays off. Many, possibly most in many areas,
no not have such expectations and envy those who do.

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tdb7893
My girlfriend is a shift worker and while she doesn't always get stable 2 day
weekend (she gets every other weekend off and generally Tuesday and Thursday
the other week) but her schedule is reasonably stable. If you are a shift
worker and your schedule isn't stable at all then that means your schedule is
bad even as shift workers go

