As I See It: The Other Eight Hours
January 29, 2024 Victor Rozek
In 1594, Philip II of Spain issued a royal edict establishing an 8-hour workday for construction workers in the Spanish colonies. As far as we know, there were no time restrictions on pillaging.
It took another 223 years for the notion of an 8-hour workday to find a supportive voice in England, albeit not a royal one. Robert Owen was something of an oxymoron in his day. He was both a textile manufacturer and a social reformer. As early as 1810 he proposed and instituted a 10-hour workday in a Scottish cotton mill. But by 1817 he had revised his vision downward to what has become the standard to this day: the 8-hour workday. Toward that end, he coined a catchy slogan that would become the rallying cry for his movement: “Eight hours’ labour, Eight hours’ recreation, Eight hours’ rest.” (As a side note, it wasn’t until 1847 that women and children in England were graciously granted a ten-hour workday.)
The word “recreation” is fascinating in the context of the early 19th century. It affirms the need for fun, during a time when the availability of “fun” for the average working person was probably limited to a walk to the nearest pub. Owen’s slogan also formalizes the notion that one of the reasons people work is to be able to recreate. He makes no mention of the uncompensated work required to maintain life and habitat; the chop wood, carry water tasks that consume so much of the other eight hours. But instead acknowledges the value of activities pursued for sheer enjoyment. I suspect the workers shouting that slogan in protest of their abysmal working conditions must have been both inspired and bewildered by the notion of eight hours of recreation.
Move the clock ahead 200 years and fun has become an industry. If you don’t know how to have fun – or you’re suffering from the curse of FOMO and think you’re the only one not having any – you can hire a coach. There are wedding coaches, retirement coaches, fitness coaches, travel coaches and, yes, coaches to teach you how to have fun.
If you don’t want a coach, you can download one of many happiness-tracking apps. Of course, if you need an app to tell you you’re happy, the battle is probably already lost, but you can track your moods like bowel movements, and your phone will let you know if you’re having a good one.
Sandra Dawes-Chatha, writing for Make Use Of describes one such app. It’s apparently marketed as helping you “discover your inner hero…. The app takes you on a journey that involves challenging yourself, collecting and activating power-ups, and battling bad guys. You can review and complete quests and adopt a secret identity while striving for a legendary win.” Frankly, if I was using such an app I would insist on a secret identity.
These are just some of the reasons Karen Heller thinks “Fun is Dead,” coincidentally the title of her recent piece in The Washington Post. She says what passes for fun these days has “become emphatic, exhausting, scheduled, hyped, forced, and performative.” And if that’s not enough she’ll tell you what she really thinks.
Even the holidays, she notes, which used to be fun, are now one long guilt-inducing request for year-end donations from a hundred worthy causes. And what hasn’t been commercialized has been politicized by pundits with the annual drumbeat announcing a non-existent “War on Christmas.”
Vacations are often over-scheduled, with too many destinations packed with too many activities. And the constant need to record and post, post, post to prove to others that you’re having a great time, can be exhausting. If you pause to record yourself while you’re having fun, at least in that moment, you’re probably not having fun. Regardless, packing a year’s worth of recreation into a two week vacation can be daunting, if not impossible. It’s become a common phenomenon to come home from a vacation feeling like you need one.
Cost, says Heller, is another fun killer. Celebratory events such as weddings, baby showers, and gender-reveal parties have become competitive “savings-draining events” that contribute more to financial stress than joy.
One of my personal pet peeves is what’s happening to camping. It used to be an inexpensive, low hassle alternative to fancier getaways that has been ruined by the forced reservation system in many national parks. The moment reservations become available for the coming year, the system is swamped with people trying to secure a campsite. But prolonged heat waves and extended fire seasons have made camping unpredictable. Campers often reserve several date blocks in different months to hedge their bets, and simply don’t show up for the ones they don’t want. People who are not computer savvy, have poor Internet connections, or don’t know exactly when they will be able to go months in advance, are out of luck. And, if you happen to have caregiving responsibilities for an elderly or ill family member it is impossible to predict their health six months from now. So, in one master stroke, automation has killed the spontaneity of the unplanned getaway and ensured that a portion of the population will essentially be barred from using a taxpayer funded public resource.
The dependance on technology, particularly social media, is one of the themes in Heller’s article. She interviews one woman who acknowledges that she “lacks a true friend group.” As a result, she admits “I’m addicted to my phone. You live in this social realm, using it as a social crutch instead of making true connections.” The cell phone becomes not only a source of disappointment by comparison, but also a source of distraction. Indeed, whether heeding her insight, or the advice of a coach or an app, making true connections is high on most people’s list of prerequisites for creating fun.
In the interest of full disclosure, I first got interested in this topic because my wife and I had precious little fun this past year. Family obligations required frequent travel and one or both of us were often on the road, away from home for weeks at a time. And during the times we were both actually home, at least one of us was too exhausted to do anything but rest.
We discussed our fun deprivation and discovered two things. First, as we reviewed the year, we recalled that we did, in fact, have moments of fun, but family issues overwhelmed those moments and they were pushed to the back of our consciousness. Second, as my wife reminded me, fun is comprised of both activity and attitude, with attitude being the more important ingredient. Almost any shared activity, if conducted with intention and joy, can be experienced as fun.
In Robert Owen’s time, perhaps the “fun” was working only 8 hours instead of 12 or 16. For us, it became something as simple as being in the same place at the same time.
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Interesting.
First time I’ve heard of Robert Owen.
Robert Owen Berendt
HA! Funny.