The Eight-Hour Work Day
A gift from Henry Ford
Love it or hate it, most of us have suffered through the eight-hour workday at some point in our careers. The 9-to-5 may soon become a chapter from history during the after-math of Covid-19. A complete takeover of remote-working culture is well on its way to forcing an end to the good old 40-hour work week; but before we part ways, lets briefly examine how it all began:
The Industrial Revolution
During the Industrial Revolution, working conditions were nothing like what we experience today. Back then, it was common for men and women to work in factories between 10–16 hours a day, six days a week, and for very little pay. Additionally, child labor was common and considered acceptable practice at the time. Around the mid 19th Century, labor unions began to form all over the world demanding better working conditions and shorter working hours for employees. The idea of an eight-hour work day emerged from the notion that in order to achieve a more balanced lifestyle, the 24-hour day should be divided into three equal parts: 8 hours of work, 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours of pleasure. As unions began to strengthen in numbers, demonstrations and worker strikes spread across several industries in the U.S., Europe and Asia demanding a standardized eight-hour work day for employees without a reduction in pay. Many employers however, refused to give-in to the demands of workers despite the ongoing pressure, until the 1940s when the 40-hour workweek became common practice by U.S. law.
Henry Ford
Despite his numerous accomplishments, Henry Ford was notorious for despising all labor unions and consequently banning their formation in his factories. However, in an attempt to legitimize his stance against labor unions, Henry Ford regularly tried to exceed union demands by significantly improving working conditions in his factories. In 1914, Ford Motors took a major step ahead of competitors to adopt the eight-hour work day, while at the same time, offering their employees a salary increase. After all, adopting an 8 hour work day meant that Ford’s factories can operate 24-hours a day with three equal eight hour shifts. Ford even went a step further by reducing the number of official work days from six days to five, leading to the birth of the 40-hour workweek.
What was seen as a result was that productivity in Ford factories immediately began to rise due to the improved working conditions. Employee retention was no longer an issue for Ford Motors, but began to threaten Ford’s competitors as employees flocked to Ford in search of higher pay and better working hours. Ford Motors saw a noticeable increase in profit margins and soon, other major industries, including Ford’s competitors, began to follow. In 1938, the United States Fair Labor Standards Act set the maximum workweek at 40 hours, provided that employees working beyond 40 hours receive an overtime salary or bonus.
The Future
Whether Henry Ford’s decisions emerged from moral obligation or pure business strategy, the circumstances that led to the formation of the eight hour work day no longer hold today. Technology and the information revolution have reshaped the way industries function and made it possible for employees to work more flexibly and adopt new working habits. However, a rise in the demand for remote work and flexible hours by millennials was not enough to overcome a system that has been in use for almost a century. As predicted, most public sector and stalemate industries have been very slow to adapt to this shift towards more flexible working conditions and it would take many years to witness a major change.
In the after-math of Covid-19 most industries are forced to adapt quickly and effectively to flexible working conditions for reasons related to health and safety. This has unveiled a plethora of hidden benefits related to flexible working culture, which include a noticeable increase in employee moral, productivity, creativity and overall physical and mental health. It is now much harder to ignore the positive impact of this new way of life. Naturally, industries will soon be faced with a detrimental decision: Will they be the “Ford Motors” who lead the way into new post-pandemic norms or the laggers who will struggle to catch up years later?
