As the two-day weekend celebrates its centenary, many believe it is time for a reevaluation of our calendar.
“Almost no one alive today recalls the era before the establishment of the five-day workweek and the two-day weekend,” stated Grace Tallon, the co-founder of Work Time Revolution, a consultancy in Toronto that assists employers in implementing shorter work hours.
Labor historians and advocates for reforming the workweek highlight that significant changes have occurred since the two-day weekend became the norm roughly a century ago, varying by region across the globe.
Tallon points out that only 20 percent of women participated in the workforce back then. “Today, we primarily have dual-income families, yet we continue to operate under a five-day workweek that fails to meet the needs of many families.”
Experts emphasize that the weekend is a human-constructed notion that has transformed over time and can do so again.
Grace Tallon, co-founder of Work Time Revolution, emphasizes that the dynamics of work and life have shifted significantly since the last review of workweek length. (Submitted by Grace Tallon)
The origins of the two-day weekend
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, lengthy workweeks were the standard.
“Essentially, for wage workers, the typical workweek consisted of six days at ten hours each,” explained Craig Heron, a labor historian and professor emeritus at York University in Toronto.
“The weekend began with Sunday, a day off for religious observance,” Heron shared with Cost of Living host Paul Haavardsrud.
Although Henry Ford is often credited with pioneering the two-day weekend, the narrative is more intricate and includes years of efforts from the labor movement.
Before Ford instituted the five-day workweek, small groups of workers had already made similar advances.
“The most notable group was the printers,” said Heron. “They achieved an eight-hour workday by around 1910.”
An illustration from the Canadian Illustrated News depicts workers participating in a march for the Nine-Hour Movement in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1872, advocating for shorter working hours and prompting substantial changes to Canadian labor legislation. (Canadian Illustrated News/Library and Archives Canada)
When Ford declared in October 1926 that his factories would transition to a five-day workweek, it marked the first instance of a major U.S. employer adopting such a policy.
In the same month, the American Federation of Labor passed a resolution during its annual congress advocating for a five-day workweek, according to Heron.
However, it took some time for the two-day weekend to be widely accepted, including in Canada, he notes.
Initially, many workplaces in North America and beyond reduced Saturday shifts to half days.
The labor movement gained traction in the 1940s as World War II increased the demand for workers, providing unions with more power to secure shorter workdays through significant strikes, he explains.
Governments began to pay attention and legislate accordingly.
Employees at organizations that implemented hour reductions while maintaining pay through initiatives by the non-profit 4-Day Week Global reported enhanced ability to balance work commitments with social lives. (Tint Media/Shutterstock)
Transformations in work
Since then, the essence of work has evolved considerably, impacting the perception of whether a two-day weekend is sufficient.
“Many individuals now have a more adaptable work schedule, particularly those working digitally, who operate at various hours throughout the day or week, and can be on call at any moment,” stated Heron. “Their phones could ring at any hour as per their employer’s needs.”
While working hours steadily decreased from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, they began to rise again afterward, according to David Henkin, a historian at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of The Week: A History of the Unnatural Rhythms That Made Us Who We Are.
The diminishing boundaries between work and personal time have not only increased the workload for individuals but also “reduced the psychological distance that people have from work,” he notes.
Envisioning every weekend as an extended break
The push to address this diminishing boundary is one of the factors driving the interest in a four-day workweek.
Tallon, who previously served as the executive director of the non-profit 4-Day Week Global, which initiated four-day-week trials starting in 2022, shared that all 41 companies that participated in Canada and the U.S. opted to continue with the four-day week after the completion of the six-month trials.
One such company was Praxis, a public relations agency based in Toronto.
Meredith Nebel, an account director at Praxis, has found that the transition to a four-day week has allowed her to free up her weekends for family time, as she can handle errands, chores, and appointments on Fridays. (Submitted by Meredith Nebel)
Meredith Nebel, an account director at Praxis, noted that days off are staggered among staff. Colleagues manage her responsibilities while she is off on Fridays, “and I take on their tasks on Mondays to ensure a seamless workflow.”
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Nebel expressed that she cannot imagine returning to a five-day workweek.
“I have more time for my children. I am more engaged in my community. I have greater opportunities for personal growth and fulfilling my own aspirations,” she mentioned.
Nebel utilizes Fridays to manage appointments, household tasks, and chores, ensuring her weekends are dedicated to family activities and her kids’ engagements.
Charles Latimer, who works for Greenpeace, noted that having Fridays off since the organization adopted a four-day workweek has provided him with the opportunity to volunteer.
“I recently initiated a youth basketball program after daycare on Tuesdays,” said Latimer, who works remotely from Lund, British Columbia, situated about 200 kilometers north of Vancouver.
On Fridays, Latimer manages administrative responsibilities for the program and keeps his four-year-old at home from daycare, he stated.
Charles Latimer, pictured with his four-year-old daughter and their dog, serves as head of strategic integration for Greenpeace, which transitioned to a four-day work schedule. (Submitted by Charles Latimer)
Consultant Grace Tallon emphasizes that transitioning to a four-day workweek requires substantial planning. “This might necessitate restructuring meetings; it could also mean ensuring that everyone has uninterrupted work time, which may not have been prioritized before.”
At Praxis, Nebel asserts that completing tasks within a shorter timeframe hasn’t posed a challenge.
“Work seems to naturally expand to fill the time allocated to it,” she explained, “but with just four days, there is an inherent urgency that leads us to plan more intentionally and to be more focused on what truly requires completion.”
‘The week is a human construct’
We often perceive the week — consisting of five workdays and two rest days — as a fixed arrangement.
However, Henkin argues that the concept of the week itself, and the manner in which we divide it, is far more arbitrary compared to other time measurement units used by humans.
“The week is unnatural because it does not stem from any astronomical phenomena that define days, hours, or years, nor is it based on biological rhythms that create patterns of day and night.”
Tallon suggests that whether a workplace aims to implement a four-day week or simply reduce long hours, the focus should be on “how to honor your own time and how the organization begins to value your time.”
“Many individuals then feel, ‘I can silence my notifications in the evening. I don’t have to check [my phone] because I feel obligated. Nothing is going to explode or fall apart.'”
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