What is a weekend?

A Post a Day in May 20/31

A weekend is a wonderful thing. Whether it falls on the traditional days of Saturday and Sunday, or whether it comes mid-week or in some other combination for you, a weekend is a time to change up the rhythm of the day, a time to step out of routine and enjoy the possibilities of 48 hours that are different from the other 120 hours of our 7-day weeks.

If we are lucky, those 48 hours are filled with fun and frivolity. However, it’s more likely that they’re filled with a combination of domestic chores and leisure activities. That was certainly the case for me while I was still working. But now that I have left full-time Monday-to-Friday work, I am very keen to differentiate the weekend days from the weekdays.

This may seem counter-intuitive; after all, every day can be a play-day now, right? But, while that might be bliss, it’s not actually how it is for me. There are still chores to do and errands to run, and if I don’t watch myself, they leak into ‘whenever’ — that is, every day of the 7-day week. And that obliterates the lovely feeling of, ‘The work week is over and I’m heading into a weekend of different time and fun time.’

Anyone who has worked knows that feeling, which explains why Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess from Downton Abbey, had to ask, “What is a weekend?” To her, it was a foreign and peculiar concept. But unions fought hard for workers to have two days away from work — one for church-going, one for leisure — and employers learned that absenteeism was reduced and productivity was increased when employees had two days off.

So, what is a weekend? It is a sensible 48-hour break after the routine of a 5-day work week and, I would argue, those 48 hours should be set aside for doing something different than what the other 120 hours of the week are spent doing. I’m trying to achieve this in my own life by treating grocery shopping and laundry as ‘work-week chores’ (Monday to Friday) and keeping Saturdays and Sundays for things that are more fun. This keeps me in step with the rhythm of the larger world; it gives some structure to my week; and, interestingly, it improves my productivity from Monday to Friday. 

I realize that I speak from a position of privilege, having retired from decades of well-paid professional work. However, decent wages for work well performed, with 48 hours away from that work for downtime and recuperation, should be the norm. And these days, with pandemic-induced worker shortages, it should be the very least that employers offer their workers. 

A weekend is a wonderful thing, and even retirees should have them.  

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Weekend signpost photo by Hansjörg Keller on Unsplash