During the Industrial Revolution, companies attempted to maximize the output of their factories by keeping them running as many hours as possible,
Typically implementing a “Sun up to Sun down” workday.
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On May 1, 1886, the first-ever May Day parade was held with 350,000 workers walking off their jobs protesting for the 8-hour workday.
Progress was still slow though and it wasn’t until 1905 that industries began implementing the eight-hour workday on their own accord.
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One of the first businesses to implement this was the Ford Motor Company, in 1914,
Ford not only cut the standard workday to 8 hours but also doubled their worker’s pay in the process.
Everyone was shocked as this resulted in
- Doubling Ford productivity off of these same workers but with fewer hours
- Ford’s profit margins also doubled within two years after implementing this change
Eventually, this encouraged other companies to adopt the shorter, 8-hour workday as a standard for their employees.
Let us remind our leaders again that we still can
- Shock our peers,
- Increase productivity
- Double profit margins
All we need to do is to enjoy 8 hours !