Who came up with the idea of ​​working 5 days a week, and why it's bad

What does the daily routine look like?modern people? First of all, we get up at 5-6 in the morning, put ourselves in order and rush to work - we need to be in time by 8-9 o'clock. After that, a long working day begins, which ends only in the evening. And after coming home, you need to cook food, do cleaning and other household chores. It is not surprising that by Saturday, many people are exhausted to such an extent that there is no strength left for outdoor activities and trips - you just want to lie on the couch and lazily watch TV shows. Have you ever wondered what kind of person came up with the idea of ​​working 5 days a week? Is it really not possible to do a 4-day work day? In fact, you can - now we'll tell you everything.

Scientists have proven many times that a five-day work week is harmful to people's health and reduces productivity, but it is still relevant in most countries.

Who invented the five-day work week

Until the end of the 19th century in pre-revolutionary Russia, the workingpeople's time was not limited by law and ranged from 14 to 16 hours a day. Changes began to take place in 1897, when a law was passed to limit the working hours of men to 11.5 hours during the day and up to 10 hours at night. For women and children, the working day was limited to 10 hours, six days a week. It turned out that at the beginning of the 20th century people worked from Monday to Saturday - most men and women worked in factories and factories.

It is important to note, that the law did not provide for holidays and did not limit overtime work. Therefore, many people worked as hard as before.

18th century workers

Another change occurred after the Octoberrevolution in 1917. Then the decree of the Soviet government "On the eight-hour working day" was issued, according to which working hours should not exceed 8 hours a day and 48 hours a week. After that, the norms of the working week were constantly rewritten - for example, in 1940 a decree was issued on the transition to an 8-hour working day with a 7-day working week.

Workers of the early 20th century

According to modern labor law,the working week cannot exceed 40 hours. Therefore, most people work from Monday to Friday, and have two days off: Saturday and Sunday. Some employers may set a 6-day work week.

Perhaps in the future people will work on the moon. My colleague Lyubov Sokovikova told in more detail about the likelihood of such an outcome of events in this material.

How long does it take to work in other countries

In most countries, the work week is alsostarts on Monday and ends on Friday. There is a noticeable difference in Israel - there the main day off is Saturday, so the working week begins on Sunday and ends on Thursday or Friday after lunch.

In Muslim countries, with the exception of Turkey,Friday is the main day off. In Saudi Arabia, the work week starts on Saturday and ends on Wednesday. In Iran, people work from Saturday to Thursday. In Egypt, Syria, the UAE, people have long been accustomed to working from Sunday to Thursday.

Workers in the United Arab Emirates

According to the World Population Review, the leasthours a week Australians work - they work 29 hours. Also, the inhabitants of Micronesia, the so-called group of tiny islands in the central and western parts of the Pacific Ocean, do not work much. For some reason, Kazakhstan also made the list, although other sources say that they also usually work there for 8 hours, 5 days a week, that is, 40 hours.

The darker the color, the longer people work. Source: World Population Review

The longest working week is in Africa.Mauritania - they work 54 hours a week. Also, residents of Egypt, the Gambia, Qatar and other countries that are on or near the African continent work very hard.

Famous workaholics are the Japanese

Hard work deserves special attention.residents of Japan and other Asian countries. As in many other parts of the world, the working day there lasts from about 9 am to 6 pm. However, it is considered laudable to stay up late at work there. Also, in Asian offices, all employees are often in plain sight, and it is considered disrespectful to leave before your colleagues. Workaholism is very harmful to health - due to constant lack of sleep, stress, malnutrition and a sedentary lifestyle, workers sometimes die. Death due to constant work without rest even has a name - karoshi. We mentioned it in passing in the article “Which people overestimate the severity of their illnesses?”.

Interesting fact: Entrepreneur Elon Musk works 120 days a week. We talked about how he does not get tired in this material.

Benefits of a 4 day work week

In a huge number of experiments, it wasIt has been proven that a five-day work week is bad for people's productivity. It is much better if employers establish a four-day work week - it has been empirically found that with this mode, employees feel better and work more efficiently.

The vast majority of people believe that companies need to move to a four-day work week.

In 2018, Perpetual Guardian from NewZealand tried to switch to a four-day work week. Representatives of the Auckland Technological University monitored the change in the indicators of workers. They noted that the new mode increased productivity by 20%, reduced employee stress levels from 45% to 38%, and improved work-life balance from 54% to 78%.

In June 2022, over sixty Britishcompanies also decided to try to switch to a four-day work week. Employees of organizations have reduced working hours by 20%, while maintaining salaries. Six months have passed since the beginning of the experiment and the experts shared the results: 71% of employees reported a decrease in the level of “burnout”, 39% of the participants in the experiment began to experience less stress.

After a good rest, people work faster and more efficiently

Not surprisingly, almost all companies expressedwillingness to continue this experiment. And 18 companies confirmed that they had decided to switch to a new working regime forever - they no longer want to return to the five-day period.

When we ask employers, many of themWe are convinced that the four-day work week will be introduced permanently. The four-day work week has provided more productive work and a happier family life for so many people, said Professor Brendan Burchell of the University of Cambridge.

Will the four-day work day become common?phenomenon in all countries is not clear. But the fact remains that a five-day work week is often harmful to people's health and has a bad effect on their productivity has been proven by science.

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