The birth of the weekend: how workers won two days off

Calls for a three-day weekend have grown after studies found that workers were less stressed and just as productive during a four-day working week.

For many Britons, Friday has become a "skive day" as workers continue a habit from the pandemic by "slacking" on the fifth day of the week, said The Times. 

But how likely is an official three-day weekend, and how was the two-day weekend won in the first place?

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How did the weekend begin?

In 19th-century Britain, few were expected to work on Sundays, but many skilled, essentially self-employed workers who had produced their quota of goods would take Monday off "to recover from Saturday night and the previous day's excesses," said Brad Beaven, professor of Social and Cultural History at the University of Portsmouth, writing for The Conversation.

By the middle of the century, taking a "Saint Monday" was a popular practice in Britain, named to mimic the religious saint's day holidays – although it was in fact "an entirely secular practice, instigated by workers to provide an extended break in the working week". But this trend dented productivity, so many factory owners decided to make Saturday a half-day.

Religious leaders also supported the drift towards a weekend. Writing in the Coventry Herald newspaper in 1862, Reverend George Heaviside argued that a weekend would allow for a refreshed workforce and greater attendance at church on Sundays. Religious bodies argued that a break on Saturday would improve working-class "mental and moral culture", said The Conversation.

Trade unions also wanted to secure a formalised break in the working week that did not rely on the unofficial customs such as "Saint Mondays". Their push for the creation of the weekend is "still cited as a proud achievement in trade union history", said Beaven. Campaign groups such as the Early Closing Association lobbied the government to keep Saturday afternoons free for leisure time for workers in return for a full day's work on Monday.

But the full two-day weekend "only arrived in 1933", and "largely by accident", said The Times, when John Boot, grandson of the founder of the Boots chemist chain, opened a new factory which became so productive that it produced a "huge surplus" of stock.

Rather than "lay workers off during the Great Depression", Boot decided to grant them Saturdays off instead, with no deduction in pay. His experiment went well and workers "reported themselves happier and healthier".

On Monday mornings Boot had a workforce which was invigorated, and ready to work, after having more time for leisure and family activities. He kept the arrangement going and the weekend soon spread and became the "industry standard".

Across the Atlantic, by the mid-19th century, it was common for workers to "log 70-hour, six-day workweeks" in "newly mechanised factories", said Morning Brew. American workers "began to protest long work hours and poor working conditions that infringed upon their rights". 

But change was also slow to come in the US. Henry Ford became one of the first employers to adopt a five-day, 40-hour week at his Ford Motor Company plants in 1926. It was only then that the weekend arrived in the US.

Will there be a three-day weekend?

Since the 1960s, "there has been talk of the weekend being extended to make it almost as long as the working week", said the BBC. Three- or four-day weeks "have been a dream for many" who believe advances in technology make it possible for people to complete their work in less time.

The Covid pandemic also increased calls for the weekend to be extended as so many of us worked from home. For many, Friday was a day to relax during the pandemic  and bosses are now "struggling to change that habit", said The Times.

Studies back this pattern up. A management consultancy that records tap-ins and tap-outs at 150 offices across the country found that occupancy is now around 50% on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with Mondays at 30% and Fridays at just 20%. "Welcome to TGIF Britain," said the paper. 

Between June and December 2022 Will Stronge, co-founder of the consultancy Autonomy, helped to run a four-day week pilot involving 61 companies and 2,900 workers. It found that 56 of the companies are continuing the experiment, because their employees reported less stress, anxiety and burnout, and were just as productive.  

There was a "small uptick in intensity on their working days", Stronge told The Times, but knowing they had the extra day off meant they did more with less. 

There has also been political support for a shorter working week: during the 2019 general election campaign, Jeremy Corbyn's Labour said it would aim to introduce a 32-hour full-time working week, with no loss of pay, within 10 years.

In an essay published in 1930, the influential economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that within 100 years, most people would be working no more than 15 hours a week. With six years of that century left, further significant shifts in working patterns seem inevitable.