{"id":3493,"date":"2024-07-01T15:55:05","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T14:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/?p=3493"},"modified":"2024-09-03T10:03:17","modified_gmt":"2024-09-03T09:03:17","slug":"history-of-the-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/history-of-the-weekend\/","title":{"rendered":"The history of the weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<header class=\"entry-header bg-adp-tan block--article-header alignfull block--article-header anchor-top\" >\n\n  \n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full entry--image\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"2183\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/m20080305051_01.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3494\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/m20080305051_01.jpg 2183w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/m20080305051_01-300x220.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/m20080305051_01-1024x751.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/m20080305051_01-768x563.jpg 768w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/m20080305051_01-50x37.jpg 50w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/m20080305051_01-1600x1173.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/m20080305051_01-1536x1126.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/m20080305051_01-2048x1501.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2183px) 100vw, 2183px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A May 1 demonstration in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1912 included banners promoting the 8 Hours movement. Courtesy Arbejdermuseet\/Workers Museum &nbsp;<br><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group entry--title-wrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"entry--social-share\">\n  <ul>\n    <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer\/sharer.php?u=https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/history-of-the-weekend\/&#038;t=The history of the weekend\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/themes\/rethink-quarterly\/img\/facebook.svg\" alt=\"Facebook logo - click to share this article on Facebook\"><\/a><\/li>\n    <li><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?text=The history of the weekend&#038;url=https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/history-of-the-weekend\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/themes\/rethink-quarterly\/img\/twitter.svg\" alt=\"Twitter logo - click to share this article on Twitter\"><\/a><\/li>\n    <li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/sharing\/share-offsite\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Frethinkq.adp.com%2Fhistory-of-the-weekend%2F\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/themes\/rethink-quarterly\/img\/linkedin.svg\" alt=\"LinkedIn logo - click to share this article on Facebook\"><\/a><\/li>\n  <\/ul>\n<\/div>\n\n            <a class=\"entry--tag tag-style\" href=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/looking-back\/\">Looking Back<\/a>\n\n        \n  <h1 class=\"entry-title\">The history of the weekend<\/h1>\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-summary-style\">Thank goodness it\u2019s Friday? Although we take it for granted, the working week as we know it originally faced strong resistance.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n  <div class=\"entry--meta content-width\">\n           <p class=\"authors\">By\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/author\/lou-martin\/\">Dr. Lou Martin<\/a>\n\n             \n         \n     <\/p>\n    \n  \n  <p>1 July 2024  <span class=\"desktop-only\">\u2014<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/issue-12-resilience\/\">Issue 12: Resilience<\/a> \n  <\/div><!-- .entry-meta -->\n\n<\/header><!-- .entry-header -->\n\t<div class=\"entry-content content-width\">\n\n\n\n<p>What would we do without the weekend? Modern office workers have become so accustomed to a regular five-day workweek \u2014 or even a four-day week \u2014 we\u2019ve forgotten that the weekend is a fairly recent invention.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the ancient world, the Roman empire had <em>nundinae<\/em>, or market days. One Roman writing in the first century CE noted that after working for eight days, farmers paused their labors on the ninth day and came to Rome to sell their produce and to \u201ctrade and receive laws.\u201d At <em>nundinae, <\/em>rulers also took the opportunity to issue their proclamations to the crowds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Han Dynasty in China, from about 202 BCE to 220 CE, officials received one day in every five \u201cfor rest and for washing one\u2019s hair\u201d known as <em>hsui-mu<\/em>. However, rulers in later dynasties reduced it to one day in 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In much of Europe, Sunday became the traditional day of rest based on the Ten Commandments of the Christian Bible. In 321 CE, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/Sunday-day-of-week\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Roman Emperor Constantine<\/a>, who had converted to Christianity, enshrined Sunday as a day of rest with some exceptions. This continued for centuries as farmers and artisans expected to have one day per week for rest.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Sunday holiday was scrupulously observed,\u201d Georges Renard wrote in his classic history &#8220;Guilds in the Middle Ages.&#8221; Europe\u2019s artisans also tended to quit work a little early on Saturday afternoons and observed some 30 holidays that typically fell on weekdays throughout the year. \u201cIt may be safely said that work was less continuous then than nowadays,\u201d Renard concluded. Medieval Europeans did not have a standard workday; sometimes they worked 12 hours during harvests or other busy times of the year, and other days they put in what we would consider half-days. One economist <a href=\"https:\/\/groups.csail.mit.edu\/mac\/users\/rauch\/worktime\/hours_workweek.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">estimates<\/a> that medieval Europeans worked a few hundred hours less per year than today&#8217;s workers in the U.K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1593, what was probably Europe\u2019s first eight-hour work day was introduced via a decree from King Philip II. The law read: \u201cAll workers in the fortifications and factories will work eight hours a day, four in the morning and four in the afternoon; the hours will be distributed by engineers according to the most convenient time, to avoid the workers from the heat of the sun.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Islamic world, Jum\u2019ah, or Friday, was designated as a day for special noontime prayers, but the Quran did not include a day of rest. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/what-is-the-islamic-weekend-133612\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chad Haines<\/a>, a religious studies scholar, the idea of a weekend that included a day of rest did not become the norm in Muslim countries until it was instituted by European colonial rulers in the 20th century. Then, because Friday was a special day for prayer, that became the day of rest, and eventually the weekend for most modern Muslim nations became Friday and Saturday.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Factories and the 48-hour week<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the 18th century in the U.S., journeymen \u2014 workers who ranked higher than apprentices but lower than master craftsmen \u2014 were known for observing the Sunday Sabbath, but also sometimes took Monday as a day of rest too. Benjamin Franklin complained, \u201cSaint Monday is kept by our people as Sunday; the only difference is that instead of employing their time cheaply at church they are wasting it expensively at the ale house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Early factories continued the tradition of the six-day workweek. At the time, skilled workers had considerable control over their schedules. Many were paid according to how much they produced, on a \u201cpiece rate,\u201d so they continued a long-standing tradition of working on Saturdays to earn a decent living. Some iron rollers \u2014 craftsmen who rolled bars into thin sheet steel \u2014 received their pay envelopes every other Saturday at noon, likely in case they knocked off work early that day. Their six-day workweeks sometimes included long lunches and early quitting times on especially hot days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many factory owners were frustrated about their workers\u2019 irregular schedules. They argued that if work wasn\u2019t scheduled on Saturdays, mill hands would fall into immorality and idleness. Mill superintendents and local clergy alike stressed the importance of attending church service on days off and encouraged workers to avoid temptations such as \u201cbad\u201d company and alcohol. By working Saturday and being present for worship on Sunday, reformers believed that they could help factory workers become respectable citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But as the steel industry developed new technologies \u2014 such as open-hearth furnaces and continuous rolling mills \u2014 industrialists were no longer dependent on highly skilled workers that could set their own schedules. The furnaces had to be run continuously because shutting them down was prohibitively expensive and time consuming. That left mill owners with two choices for daily work schedules: three eight-hour shifts or two 12-hour shifts. In England and Germany, the eight-hour shift was fairly common.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Pittsburgh in the 1880s, the steelworkers union negotiated for three eight-hour shifts, but when industrialist Andrew Carnegie\u2019s company broke the union in the infamous Homestead Strike of 1892, his company imposed two 12-hour shifts. By the early 1900s, nearly all of Carnegie\u2019s steelworkers were on 12-hour shifts, and, worse yet, they worked six days one week and seven days the next.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After observing Pittsburgh\u2019s steelworkers for a full year, researcher John Fitch wrote, \u201cAdding to and intensifying the evils of Sunday work is the \u2018long turn\u2019 of 24 hours that comes every second week.\u201d Every two weeks, workers had to work a long turn so they could get every other Sunday off. In addition to being grueling, the shift switched the workers from day shifts to night shifts every two weeks. \u201cThere are only two holidays in the steel industry today, Christmas and the Fourth of July,\u201d Fitch added. \u201cIt is a degrading system of work that affords no opportunity for rest.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unions had begun campaigning for an eight-hour workday in the 1860s. In the U.S. in 1866, the National Labor Union was founded, and one of its first acts was to pass a resolution calling for an eight-hour workday. The standard for the workday was tied to the overall length of the workweek, which at the time was six days. The movement\u2019s slogan: \u201cEight hours for work, eight hours for rest, and eight hours for what you will.\u201d But unions lobbied unsuccessfully for the eight-hour day for decades, until in 1916, the U.S. Congress passed a law that set eight hours as the standard for railroad workers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The movement for an 8-8-8 day had more early success in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nma.gov.au\/defining-moments\/resources\/eight-hour-day\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Australia<\/a>, where a major stonemasons\u2019 strike in 1856 secured them an eight-hour workday. Most workers in Australia, including women and children, still worked longer hours for less pay until the Eight Hours Act was passed in Victoria and New South Wales in 1916. The Commonwealth Arbitration Court approved a 40-hour, five-day working week for all Australians in 1948.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-style-zoooom\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"765\" src=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/FL15639889-1024x765.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3495\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/FL15639889-1024x765.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/FL15639889-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/FL15639889-768x574.jpg 768w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/FL15639889-50x37.jpg 50w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/FL15639889-1536x1147.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/FL15639889.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Crowds of spectators line Bourke Street in Melbourne to watch the Eight Hours Day procession on 17 April 1914. The day the stonemasons put down their tools, April 21, is celebrated to this day in parts of Australia. Courtesy: State Library Victoria\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The 48-hour workweek spreads<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>At that same time, Mexican revolutionaries were drafting a new constitution. The Mexican Revolution, which started in 1910, was fueled in part by workers rising up against harsh working conditions, often imposed in new factories owned by foreign companies. In Section 123 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917, delegates set a maximum of eight hours of work for a single day and required one day of rest for every six days worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1918, when the Social Democratic Party of Germany played a central role in forming the Weimar Republic, the government adopted an eight-hour day for its six-day workweek. It was built on an 1891 law that had already outlawed work on Sundays, as well as certain holidays, thereby limiting the workweek to 48 hours. The 1918 law made exceptions in industries that had to run continuously, allowing a worker to put in a 16-hour day once every three weeks as long as they also had two 24-hour days of rest in the same three weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly after the Russian Revolution, Soviet Union officials announced they intended to achieve the shortest workday and workweek. Initially, the 1922 Soviet Labor Code shortened the workweek from six 10-hour days to six eight-hour days. Working 48 hours instead of 60 each week was an improvement over working conditions in many factories in western Europe and the United States at the time. While the new code provided for the state to set a minimum wage, it was not explicitly designed to offset the reduced hours. In 1927, a decree announced a planned transition to the seven-hour day \u201cwithout reducing wages.\u201d&nbsp;However, at least one study found that the Soviet Union&#8217;s repeated efforts to increase production generally conflicted with the goal of shortening the workday and workweek. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Boosting productivity&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the U.S. in the 1920s, a growing number of industrialists were questioning the harsh labor policies of their predecessors \u2014 the minimal wages and long hours \u2014 that had led to intense conflict and the radicalization of many workers. Several, including Henry Ford, called for labor policies that would encourage greater productivity and company loyalty. In 1914, Henry Ford made headlines with the announcement of Ford Motor\u2019s \u201cFive-Dollar Day,\u201d which doubled the pay rate for the common laborers in the company\u2019s auto plants. The company also adopted the eight-hour workday. Then, in 1926, Ford again made headlines when he announced a five-day workweek.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHereafter there will be no more work with us on Saturdays and Sundays,\u201d Ford declared. \u201cThese will be free days, but the men, according to merit, will receive the same pay equivalent as for a full six-day week.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was part of Ford\u2019s belief that if industries used mass production techniques \u2014 like Ford Motor\u2019s moving assembly line \u2014 they needed to exist in mass-consumption societies. When he announced the five-dollar day, Ford explained that workers needed to be able to afford the products they labored to produce. He made a similar pronouncement with his five-day week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe short week is bound to come, because without it the country will not be able to absorb its production and stay prosperous,\u201d Ford told the magazine &#8220;World\u2019s Work&#8221; in 1926. \u201cWell-managed business pays high wages and sells at low prices. Its workmen have the leisure to enjoy life and the wherewithal with which to finance that enjoyment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression, American voters elected Franklin Roosevelt as president, and he promoted experimental measures to spark the nation\u2019s economy. The newly created National Recovery Administration was tasked by Congress with convening representatives from each industry to work on a code that would \u201cestablish by mutual agreement, the standards as to the maximum hours of labor, minimum rates of pay, and such other conditions of employment as may be necessary.\u201d Many of those codes included adoption of the 40-hour workweek. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Supreme Court declared part of the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933 unconstitutional because of price-fixing issues, but the precedent had been established. In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set the maximum workweek first at 44 hours and then at 40 hours two years later. If workers exceeded the maximum hours for the week, they were to be paid 150% of their normal hourly rate \u2014 or \u201ctime and a half.\u201d This time, the Supreme Court \u2014 with a different composition of justices \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/united_states_v._darby\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">upheld<\/a> the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-style-zoooom\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"824\" src=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/service-pnp-cph-3c20000-3c24000-3c24500-3c24545v.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3496\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/service-pnp-cph-3c20000-3c24000-3c24500-3c24545v.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/service-pnp-cph-3c20000-3c24000-3c24500-3c24545v-300x241.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/service-pnp-cph-3c20000-3c24000-3c24500-3c24545v-768x618.jpg 768w, https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/service-pnp-cph-3c20000-3c24000-3c24500-3c24545v-50x40.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Female workers in New York strike for a 40-hour workweek in 1937. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A four-day workweek?&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Experiments with the ideal workweek continued throughout the 20th century. In the 1930s in the Soviet Union, the government further reduced the workweek to six seven-hour days but then returned to eight-hour days in the leadup to World War II. During the late 1950s, Nikita Khrushchev announced the 46-hour week followed in 1960 by the 41-hour week, which included five seven-hour days plus six hours on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While a 40-hour workweek remains elusive for many, the two-day weekend is now practically sacred. And some European nations are experimenting with even shorter workweeks. Belgium, Iceland and the U.K. have all piloted a shorter workweek, and recently, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/news\/france-piloting-4-day-week-053000063.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced a plan<\/a> to put the nation\u2019s workforce on a four-day workweek. For France this has much to do with the 12% of children whose parents are divorced and switch custody every week, requiring more flexibility in their work schedules. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/worklife\/article\/20190802-how-shorter-workweeks-could-save-earth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new study<\/a> found perhaps an even more compelling reason to reduce the workweek: Saving the planet. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst believe that working one fewer day per week could cut humanity\u2019s carbon footprint by 30%, mostly by reducing commuting. Undoubtedly, climate conscious policymakers around the world will be closely watching France\u2019s experience with the four-day workweek to see if it can be adopted in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"block--author\">      <div class=\"block-author__inner\">\n        <div class=\"author--image\">\n                      <a href=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/author\/lou-martin\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/profile_Martin-Lou-298x305.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n                  <\/div>\n        <div class=\"author--info\">\n                      <a href=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/author\/lou-martin\/\" class=\"author--name\">Dr. Lou Martin<\/a>\n\n          \n          <p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dr. Lou Martin is an associate professor of history at Chatham University, a cofounder of the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum, and a member of the advisory council of the Ohio River Valley Institute<\/span><\/p>\n          <div class=\"block--author-social\"><ul class=\"author--socials\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.chatham.edu\/academics\/undergraduate\/history\/faculty\/lou-martin.html\" title=\"Author Website\" target=\"_blank\"><i class=\"fas fa-globe\"><\/i><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n       <\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block--recommended-content alignwide is-style-bg-adp-tan\"><div class=\"block-recommended-content__inner\">\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Read more<\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"block--article-pushpoint pushpoint__small\">      <div class=\"block-article-pushpoint__inner\">\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/history-minimum-wage\/\">\n        <div class=\"pushpoint--image\">\n          <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/puerto-rico-fsa-8c08000-8c08300-8c08344u-1084x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"pushpoint--info\">\n                    <span class=\"pushpoint--title\">The long evolution of minimum wage<\/span>\n          <p>Real-life experiments show that increasing minimum wages doesn\u2019t affect employment rates, but does help relieve poverty. <\/p>        <\/div>\n      <\/a><\/div> <\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block--article-pushpoint pushpoint__small\">      <div class=\"block-article-pushpoint__inner\">\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/digitizing-payroll-cashless-society\/\">\n        <div class=\"pushpoint--image\">\n          <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Bank-of-America-1969-1084x576.jpeg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"pushpoint--info\">\n                    <span class=\"pushpoint--title\">How digitizing payroll set the scene for a cashless society<\/span>\n          <p>When companies started embracing direct bank deposits for employees\u2019 wages 50 years ago, it laid the foundation for today&#8217;s digital cash. <\/p>        <\/div>\n      <\/a><\/div> <\/div>\n\n<div class=\"block--article-pushpoint pushpoint__small\">      <div class=\"block-article-pushpoint__inner\">\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/history-of-swift\/\">\n        <div class=\"pushpoint--image\">\n          <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/rethinkq.adp.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/8581287856_c39e9fca7c_o-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/>\n        <\/div>\n        <div class=\"pushpoint--info\">\n                    <span class=\"pushpoint--title\">50 years of SWIFT\u00a0<\/span>\n          <p>How the introduction of secure cross-border bank messaging changed international business forever. \n<\/p>        <\/div>\n      <\/a><\/div> <\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<section class=\"wp-block-group alignfull section--sign-up has-background\" style=\"background-color:#7967ae\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center is-style-default has-white-color has-text-color has-large-font-size\"><a href=\"\/sign-up\/\">Sign up<\/a> to keep up to date with ReThink Q.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thank goodness it\u2019s Friday? Although we take it for granted, the working week as we know it faced strong resistance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3494,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[138,66,500,501],"coauthors":[118],"class_list":["post-3493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-looking-back","tag-history","tag-looking-back","tag-weekends","tag-work-week","issue-issue-12-resilience"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The history of the weekend - ADP ReThink Q<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thank goodness it\u2019s Friday? 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