The five-day week we all enjoy was never a law of nature, but a compromise with history.

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A century ago, Henry Ford introduced the two-day weekend for his factory workers. Adopted more widely in the1930’s, the transition was shaped by economic pressure, industrial change and the need to rethink how work was distributed.

The Great Depression helped make the case that, if there was not enough work to go around, the answer could not simply be to exhaust some workers while excluding others.

We’re seeing a potentially similar moment with artificial intelligence. I am not saying that AI will automatically hand everyone Fridays off, but it is making the old logic of the five-day week harder to defend.

The five-day week belongs to a world in which time........

© LBC