As you know today, the standard operation routine for many workers, office workers or professionals is eight hours a day and five days a week, dear friends. But how, why and by whom has this order been standardized? Here is our research for you ...
In the early years of the Industrial Revolution, companies and factory owners kept their factories working from sunrise to sunset, to keep the yield from production high and to make more profits. The workers were trying to stand in these long working hours because of the low hourly wages, and instead forced them to adapt to this inhuman order rather than sending them to school. During this period, workers were forced to work between 10-18 hours a day, six days a week.
This situation began to change in the 19th century.
The first person to propose a working order of eight hours a day was Robert Owen, a British business person. For him, the day should be divided into three equal parts, and the workers should be given equal time to work and sleep. With this in mind, Owen, in 1817, "eight hours of work, eight hours of entertainment, eight hours of rest" with the sentence for all workers tried to standardize this scheme.
However, a little more time was needed for this proposal to become widespread.
Initially, lower working hours were not welcomed by the factory owners. However, with a series of factory actions that took place in the 19th century, the workers could breathe a little bit. As a result of the actions that took place in 1847, 10 hours a day, ie 60 hours per week, was standardized for women and children. In the future, the daily work of eight hours, which became a widespread demand among workers, caused the factory owners to remain in a difficult position.
As a result, it was decided that the eight-hour working order would become standard from 1 May 1886.
However, this decision was taken by the union and neither the government nor the employers recognized this rule. Therefore, at the 1886 Labor Day, which was planned to be implemented, 350,000 workers participated in the protests to impose this order. One of the first companies to implement this decision was the layan Ford Motor Company ler, which gave employees eight hours of work and doubled their wages since 1914. Although this decision was initially met by other big companies, the bosses, seeing that the company's production and profit increased in the coming years, made eight hours of work a standard for all workers. It would be in 1937 to enact this order by the US government.
Ford Motor Company became the leading company in reducing the working days of the workers to five.
On September 25, 1926, the Ford company decided to reduce the working days to five and the workers to work forty hours a week. Ford's decision was not welcomed by other business owners; even those who claimed that this order was wrong because it would increase the alcohol use of workers. On the other hand, the reason why Ford supported this new order was not just thinking about the workers. The fact that workers had more vacancies meant that they would make more purchases, keep the capitalist economy more viable, and take automobiles to travel with their families in their spare time. In addition, workers who were satisfied with their working hours and lives were also more productive in the factory.
Ford's plan went well, and both workers' productivity and sales increased more than ever.
Moreover, employees who are not satisfied with the working hours and wages of the company they work with started to flock to Ford. Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford and later director of the company, used the following statements in March 1922 to the New York Times:
"Every person needs more than a day a week to relax and have fun. The Ford company thinks that an ideal family life is necessary for all its employees. We believe that a person should spend plenty of time with his family to lead a happy life."
And so we are maintaining the same order for about a century.
Five days a week and forty hours of work is the ideal order for the happiness and health of human beings, we do it. However, it is obvious that this system is necessary for maintaining the current order of the world. However, we believe that it is not only the working hours that determine the satisfaction of the human being, but also the fact that he is passionate about his work and work.