It wasn’t until the 1930s that the term ‘weekend’ entered the vernacular in the UK. Before then, many were used to working six days a week and resting on the sabbath day.
But the mechanisation era of the 19th century brought with it huge productivity gains, changing working patterns until a five-day work week eventually became the norm.
One hundred years hence, will it be time for a new term to enter common parlance in the 2030s, to mark the shift to a three-day weekend?
Many commentators have already begun to refer to the flood of new AI tools available on the market as the ‘new industrial revolution’, and the productivity gains look set to be enormous.
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman this week gave the example of a graphic designer who now has access to generative AI. Historically they might have taken two weeks to present some designs to a customer, said Reid. But now the customer expects results within 24 hours, or even on the same day.
These momentous efficiencies make labour market changes inevitable. Many will be out of a job. The clearest cases are in rules-based roles which already imitate computer processes, such as responding to queries at a call centre.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer may have had these roles in mind when he signalled the government could make as much as £45bn in savings through AI-based productivity gains.
Those left in the labour market will also expect change. Why continue working five days a week when I can now get the same amount of work done in four? For business owners wrestling with a now-bloated workforce, it may be savvier to preserve expertise by having more people work fewer days, rather than fewer working more. And the accelerating rate of innovation may mean more hours of the week are given over to training and development to keep pace.
If we do move to a four-day week in the future, it will be tech firms that lead the charge. Digital bank Atom already made the transition four years ago, and has never looked back.
Atom staff were seen as pioneers for making the move, and so far at least, few of their peers have followed suit. But CEO Mark Mullen feels it is inevitable.
““I think a four-day week isn’t progressive, it’s bloody logical,” he said this week.
“And I expect that before I shuffle off my mortal coil, there’ll be organizations offering a three-day week, because why wouldn’t you when the alternative is essentially a no-day week?”
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