Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Day

As Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Day with a three-day weekend, the movement to make every weekend a three-day weekend continues to grow.
Japan is leading the way. After Dentsu’s chairman resigned on Dec 29th following the suicide of a staff member after overworking, the Japan government and business are launching a “Premium Friday” campaign in February to get companies to give their workers Friday afternoons off.
The campaign will start with the last Friday of every month, but it’s the first baby-steps towards the first nationally recognised three-day weekend: A movement that is already being pushed by an increasing number of companies.
Japan’s largest retail chain, Fast Retailing, is already running a three-day weekend program with 10,000 of their staff. Amazon has piloted a 30 hour work-week program, and Carlos Slim gave staff at his telecoms company, Telemex, the option of a four day work-week, which 40% have taken.
But wait – don’t we have a two-day weekend for good reason?
Actually, the two-day weekend is a modern invention. Until 90 years ago, most people worked six or seven days a week. Then, in 1926 Henry Ford began closing his factories on both Saturday and Sunday. He reasoned if he was going to have more customers to drive his cars, they needed more time off to drive them.
Others soon followed, as Henry Ford showed that with automation his company could still make a profit with everyone working less. And in fact they became more productive as well as happier in the time they did work.
Three years later, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Union became the first union to demand all workers have a two-day weekend. And it wasn’t until 1940 that the US Fair Labor Standards Act mandated the 40 hour work week.
That means the two-day weekend was only adopted nationwide in the US 60 years ago, and the rest of the world soon followed.
The two-day weekend, then, is the result of the Industrial revolution. Will the three-day weekend be the result of the technological revolution?
Tech entrepreneurs think that’s the direction we’re going in.
As Google’s Larry Page says “If you really think about the things that you need to make yourself happy – housing, security, opportunities for your kids – anthropologists have been identifying these things. It’s not that hard for us to provide those things.”
“The amount of resources we need to do that, the amount of work that actually needs to go into that is pretty small. I’m guessing less than 1% at the moment. So the idea that everyone needs to work frantically to meet people’s needs is just not true.”
“Most people like working, but they’d also like to have more time with their family or to pursue their own interests. So that would be one way to deal with the problem, is if you had a coordinated way to just reduce the workweek. And then, if you add slightly less employment, you can adjust and people will still have jobs.”
How realistic is it that countries follow Japan’s lead? It takes time, but countries are always shifting minimum wages and maximum work hours. Martin Luther King day is America’s most recent new holiday, promoted by labor unions to give staff a day off in January. It only came into effect in 1986.
Other countries have made changes far more recently. The United Arab Emirates officially switched their weekend from Thursday and Friday to Friday and Saturday in 2006 to try and get more in sync with the rest of the world. Saudi Arabia was even more recent, making the change in 2013.
Why the change in days? Because while the Christian day of rest and worship is Sunday, the Jewish day is Saturday, and the Muslim day is Friday.
A large part of the reason the two-day weekend became Saturday and Sunday was because it made most sense for the Christian and Jewish communities in Western countries. That left the Muslim countries out of sync.
A three day weekend, including Friday, would not just give everyone more time to enjoy life, it would embrace the three major faiths that inspired the concept of a day of rest in the first place.
Outside of increasing the weekend, a number of European countries have already taken the lead in reducing working hours. The average Denmark and Norway work week is now 33 hours. In Netherlands, it’s down to 29 hours. According to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network, these countries are in the top five happiest nations in the world.
Isn’t it time quality of work was valued over quantity of work? More productivity in less time leads to not just higher quality work, but a higher quality life.
The three-day weekend isn’t just possible. It’s probable. At a time when most people were still working six days a week, in 1930, economist John Maynard Keynes wrote a prophetic essay called ”Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren” where he predicted that with technology and economic growth we would need to work far less and have far more time off, and he said:
“For the first time since his creation, man will be faced with this problem: how to use his freedom from pressing economic cares, how to occupy the leisure, which science and compound interest will have won for him, to live wisely and agreeably and well.”
“The strenuous purposeful money-makers may carry all of us along with them into the lap of economic abundance. But it will be those peoples, who can keep alive, and cultivate into a fuller perfection, the art of life itself and do not sell themselves for the means of life, who will be able to enjoy the abundance when it comes.”
The future Keynes envisioned is now here. We just need to change our week to fit it.
“If you love life, don’t waste time. For time is what life is made of.” ~ Bruce Lee
And if you are in America, enjoy your day off tomorrow!

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