The Weekend (1934 - 2026): Grandpa, What Was "TGIF?"

 What it takes to oversee bots, no right to disconnect, client demands, especially in professional services such as law, startup culture and working multiple jobs. Here we are in what The Atlantic calls "The Infinite Workweek." Collapsing before its 100th anniversary is the concept of The Weekend. 

When is the last time anyone has asked you, "What are you doing this weekend?" They know: You'll be working, some or most or all of the time. The euphoria building Friday afternoon - TGIF - as employees anticipated two days off will fade as among the emotional sets of a labor force.

Some date the introduction of The Weekend to 1934, in Nottingham, England. Chair of the Boots Corporation John Boot had achieved such efficiency gains that too much inventory was being produced. The solution he hit upon was to limit production to five days a week. But he kept the worker pay the same. Maybe that progressive measure was implemented because Boot noticed the workforce came in on Monday refreshed and energetic.

How each of us lost the weekend comes down to our own individual stories. 

After being laid off in the corporate downsizing of the late 1980s, I was among the Generation of Accidental Entrepreneurs. Middle-aged we got it that launching our own businesses was the only way to continue to make a good living. Years later ProPublica was going to document that we aging were finished in the traditional workplace. Not only were the odds that we would be forced out. In addition if we got lucky and landed another job in our field only 10% would earn comparable compensation. 

Weekends, come on. They were for those who still could hold on in corporate. No longer us. Forget most holidays also. On Christmas eve I prepared the visuals for a national show on the history of tobacco.

Forget also counting on going to bed any night. In SuperLawyers, back in 2010, Paul, Weiss celebrity defense attorney Brad Karp tells his story about hitting upon unique client solutions during the night. In corporate there were artificial deadlines. In operating your own business those deadlines, imposed by the client, were all-too-real. 

Therefore, over the past several years more and more of us who continue to earn a good living, whether as entrepreneurs or high-placed knowledge workers, rolled our eyes when we read the laments on Reddit about having to work all weekends and pulling all-nighters. How out-of-touch. That's how we have been sizing up that mindset which expected normal working conditions.

The new success ethos is how to maintain all our moving parts - cognitive, physical, emotional, spiritual - during the infinite workweek. 

As an intuitive coach and tarot-reader I custom-make guides for self-care.

But one common feature of those plans is the need to cut. Instead of talking through relationships, business and personal, which have become problem-laden, exit. No need to explain. Technology assists with blocking, unfriending and deleting. Reverence for old friendships has become as much an anachronism as relaxing two days a week.

What also is becoming a fundamental is radical acceptance. The epidemic of exhaustion usually results from resisting what it. That sucks up so much energy. The energy we preserve with acceptance can be leveraged in figuring out what we can eventually change. Those of us middle-aged Accidental Entrepreneurs who thrived didn't decry corporate downsizing. We stuck to the knitting of getting business for our enterprises. 

I am grateful I have client appointments lined up this Saturday and Sunday.

Career Paths? So Over. It’s about Earning a Good Living. No matter what.

Complimentary consultation. No Pressure. Street-smart Guidance. Contact Jane Genova janegenova374@gmail.com.