In 1965, perfume salesman Alan Stillman opened the first TGI Fridays. As the founding myth goes, he thought up the name of the now-ubiquitous restaurant chain when his friend beat him on the ski slopes and he turned to the one consolation he could find: “Thank goodness it’s Friday.”
Fifty years later, that refrain, which is now used as an exhausted embrace of a work-free weekend, is losing its valence. It seems more Americans than ever are working long or odd hours, making the traditional 9-to-5 a thing of the past. Nearly a fifth of Americans work unusual or variable hours, and many white collar workers spend long days at the office.
“Combine the people who have unpredictable workweeks with those who have prolonged ones, and you get a good third of the American labor force,” writes Judith Shulevitz for the Atlantic.
Shulevitz is the author of The Sabbath World: Glimpses of a Different Order of Time, in which she argues that even for nonreligious observers, a day of rest can sow innumerable benefits for communities.
Unless you’re in small town America, though, it’s hard to find a store that’s closed on Sundays. Many Americans spend their weekends checking work emails, attuned to a ceaseless cycle of productivity that demands workers never rest.
Even if Americans want to enjoy leisure, they may have trouble doing it. Another problem employees face is variable scheduling. About 40% of hourly employees know their schedule a week out at best, and 28% learn their schedule only three (or fewer) days in advance.
With such unpredictable work hours, many Americans find it hard to take time off for their families. When a father works the night shift at an Amazon warehouse and the mother doesn’t know her shifts at the diner in advance, schedules clash and parents find it hard to be there for their children, much less for their friends.
The government wants to help. “In Seattle, New York City, and San Francisco, ‘predictive scheduling’ laws (also called ‘fair workweek’ laws) require employers to give employees adequate notice of their schedules and to pay employees a penalty if they don’t,” Shulevitz writes.
The other solution is for workers, as much as they can, to schedule free time into their busy lives. That may not have everyone exclaiming, “Thank God it’s Friday,” but at least we can be grateful for the downtime we do have, reminding ourselves why we work in the first place.
