Ford's 100-Year-Old Weekend Frays as 32.1-Hour Workweeks and Hybrid Jobs Blur Shared Time
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 16
Ford's 100-Year-Old Weekend Frays as 32.1-Hour Workweeks and Hybrid Jobs Blur Shared Time
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 16
Summary
A century after Henry Ford popularized the two-day weekend in 1926, the shared Saturday-Sunday block is being eroded by hybrid work, Friday slowdowns and always-on email culture.
Ford cut factory staff to five eight-hour days without reducing pay to curb exhaustion and absenteeism that had reached 10%, while also betting more leisure would help sell cars.
That model spread as productivity held up: the US formally adopted the five-day week in 1938, and Boots cut Saturday shifts for 5,000 workers in 1933 before making it company policy.
Newer work patterns are pulling in opposite directions — the Netherlands averages a 32.1-hour week, UK rail operators now treat Fridays as off-peak, yet remote workers increasingly answer messages on Sundays.
The result is a sharper divide between flexible "time owners" and shift-bound workers, threatening the weekend's original role as synchronized time for families, communities and culture.