However, I’ve never met an economist with a reasonable explanation for human behaviour. Alcock suggests that working hours are subject to an income effect and a substitution effect (either an increase in your hourly pay makes you work more hours because you get more back, or the same increase makes you cut hours because you can maintain your standard of living with less effort). Implicit in this is the naive assumption that people choose their working hours.

The waiters, shelf-fillers and road-sweepers whose wages are falling, are working in organisations that don’t permit them to choose hours. They’re likely to work for companies which strictly control overtime, possibly working where flexibilised working time is imposed, and they may be on a zero hours contract with no say over when and how long they work for. Purcell et al (1999) found that manual and lower skilled workers were less able to control their working hours, and benefited less from flexibilisation. The economists mantra of choice gets in the way of understanding labour market experiences.

References

1. Purcell, K, Hogarth, T. and Simm, C (1999) ‘The costs and benefits of ‘non-standard’ employment’. Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

In Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, (Sillitoe, 1960 [1958]), Arthur is proud of work, his speed, his skill on the capstan lathe, the secret of his extra fat pay packet, and so he think he’s cock of the pub come Saturday night, where he can down the pints, fall down the stairs and still go home with his married lover Brenda.

He knows Saturday night shouldn’t feel like Monday morning. And he knows that Saturday night demands the pay back of Sunday morning. Sunday morning is no redemption though, it’s hangover and a sprint out the door before her husband comes home, and then perhaps fishing trip, these are the counterbalance to the routine of work and pub.

You may be familiar with the idea that the standard 9 to 5, Monday to Friday working week is less common than once it was. Shift work, part time work and the need for workers to facilitate the consumption activities of those who have a weekend holiday from work are all evidence of detraditionalisation and flexibilisation, although there are those who think the level of change is overstated (Bradley et al, 2000: 51–70). But obviously people work on Saturdays.

I hate working on Saturdays. I used to, my first job was in a lean-to makeshift garage, where I checked for flaws in new clothes. I was 13. Later, I worked Saturdays in a car showroom as the meet and greet girl, and then in a bar. And I liked it sometimes, but I can’t work Saturdays now. Sundays are different. A bit of marking, some reading, I don’t mind. Sundays are dull anyway. But the mythology of the Good Saturday that I like to live with doesn’t permit for this day to let me work. The Good Saturday, however, cannot simply be understood as leisure time, defined as freedom from work (Parker, 1983). Saturday is festival time. Gadamer describes the festival as autonomous time, time which has its own rhythm, which exists not to be spent but to be experienced. Festival time is not unpredictable, or freefloating, only different to the temporality of other days. My manifesto for a Good Saturday does not mean ignoring the norms of work (routine and obligation), but playing with them to make saturday feel like festival time.

My manifesto: the paper, always the same. Breakfast that takes time (this is work). Spontaneity — though spontaneity needn’t mean an absence of order. Putting things in order (this is work). Being surprised. Seeing what happens. A trip out. A pint too early in the day. Noting and remarking on the absence of work. Letting things take longer than they need. These make for an ordinary sort of Saturday festival. The festival, says Gadamer is a community experience (this is why all football matches should start at 3pm on Saturday), but not everyone can share my good Saturday, they have to be willing to let time stretch without apparent end. Who’s free this weekend?

References

Bradley, H. Erickson, M. Stephenson, C. and Williams, S. (2002) Myths at Work. Polity: Cambridge.
1. Gadamer, H. G. (1986) The Relevance of the Beautiful and other essays. Trans. Nicholas Walker. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2. Parker, S. (1983) Leisure and Work. London : Allen & Unwin.
3. Sillitoe, A. (1960) Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Pan Books, Ltd, London.