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You Don’t Need More Free Time

170 points by otoolep 11y ago

Amorymeltzer 11y ago
tl;dr - Free time is better when other people have the same time off as well. This feels like a bit of a no-brainer to me, but that doesn't mean more time off wouldn't be useful. Saturday and Sunday are usually spent catching up on work, doing some laundry and dishes, and all the other errands we didn't have time for during the week (groceries, repairs, etc.). We have more leisure time as well, but a few hours here and there during the week are quite useful, even if nobody I know shares those hours, as they would let me shift the "boring" stuff to a time when nobody else is free. Life is better if I can meet a few friends for brunch Sunday morning because I had time to get groceries on Tuesday and do laundry on Thursday.
- ritchiea 11y ago
  Exactly! And just because free time is better when there are others around doesn't mean that extra days off aren't helpful. I'm a contractor and I regularly have a week or two off between jobs. Sure the weekend is still better than a Tuesday without work but I can take time on that Tuesday to go to a movie or a museum on my own and it feels great. And another thing the study fails to account for is that unemployed people are less likely to enjoy their days off than employed people. Being unemployed and seeking a job is stressful, many unemployed people are concerned about how long it will take to find a new job or what kind of stress is being put on their finances. If you have stable work and get Wednesday off you can go to the spa and spend some time in the sauna to relax. If you are unemployed you are probably being frugal and know it's not wise to spend money that you may need later to pay your rent. This article is narrow sighted rubbish trying to twist the author's research to have greater impact.
cryoshon 11y ago
"The intuitive finding was that people’s feelings of well-being closely tracked the workweek. As measured by things such as anxiety, stress, laughter and enjoyment, our well-being is lowest Monday through Thursday. The workweek is a slog. Well-being edges up on Friday, and really peaks on Saturday and Sunday. We are, in a real sense, living for the weekend." Great, another person admitting that American work culture is slowly killing people, even the people who aren't actively working. This is an impetus for change. "This conclusion points to a key feature of the work-life problem: You cannot get more “weekend” simply by taking an extra day off work yourself. If we were to take more time off as individuals, we would be likely to spend that time, as the jobless do, waiting for other people to finish work. We are stuck “at work,” in a sense, by the work schedules of our family and friends." Yes, I found this to be true during my times of unemployment, but only if I assumed that my daytime hours had to be waiting... there are many ways to be useful during the day without a job, however that time period will not be relaxing. Sounds like "more free time" and less "time spent filling a seat" would lead to more general wellbeing in both employed and unemployed people because people would have more shared time together and less time in the stressful and mentally detrimental work environment. My solution: make all weekends three day weekends and don't alter the amount that people are paid. Remove the outdated and harmful protestant work ethic and replace it with the German work ethic: do the work that is requested of you at maximum efficiency, then leave immediately afterward, and do not answer the phone or emails. Gutting the idiotic and nigh-suicidal affinity that people have for wasting time at work without actually doing anything would also help. So yeah, we do need more free time, because time spent at work is typically wasted time as well as mentally unhealthy time. If everyone gets more free time on the same day, I assume better mental health would result. To be clear, we've reached the point in our technological development that this goal is eminently possible if there were political will or popular revolt.
abalashov 11y ago
Having been self-employed for eight years now, with all the 24/7 life/work home/office work/play crossover it brings, it's been so long since I could relate to this perspective, or experience the joy of happy hour or TGIF. I often work weekends, while am prone to accomplish very little on a random Wednesday. It's not that I'm always working or that I'm preternaturally time-efficient, organised or productive, it's just that there are no clear boundaries between work and non-work hours (for good or ill), nor between most friends and colleagues. Maybe this doesn't apply to most people, but with the proportion of the economy accounted for by solitary freelancers expected to rise, I would think I'm not the only one who doesn't even remember what weekends or holidays are anymore. If so, it seems to me that a more enlightened and forward-thinking perspective would take into account the fluidity of work-life space for many Millennials (and beyond), rather than trying to shoehorn us back into mid 20th century big-corporate life rhythms. EDIT: My personal investment in that viewpoint has been largely about finding better workplaces and better ways to work, e.g. http://likewise.am/2015/12/18/why-i-love-industrious-and-about-coworking-and-offices-more-generally/ http://likewise.am/2015/12/18/why-i-love-industrious-and-abo...
- Disruptive_Dave 11y ago
  I've been working from home for about 8 years now as well, as a director of an agency, as a freelance consultant, and as a startup co-founder. Until I put into place some structure around my work hours, I was less productive and enjoyed my life less. Your final sentence seems to ask for more "enlightened" views on an unstructured work environment, but you seem to be displeased with yours; am I reading that correctly?
  - abalashov 11y ago
    I'm not necessarily displeased with the very fact per se, though in my particular case it was an extremely - and shortsightedly - solipsistic choice for a (then) 22 year-old extrovert to make. I agree that structure and routine are essential. However, many people, including myself, ended up in self-employment in part because they can't do 9-to-5 well or consistently for years on end.
- 11y ago
spacehome 11y ago
I'm retired and I still want more free time.
- bisRepetita 11y ago
  Please expand on this. Sincerely curious why/how.
  - spacehome 11y ago
    Is it so hard to imagine? Like most here, I enjoy a wide variety of pursuits. I'm not sure the specific pursuits would matter; everyone can fill in their own blanks. A single pursuit could easily take dozens of hours per week or more to enjoy in their fullness. Add in physical fitness, sleep, cooking, and hygiene, and that's more time than I'm blessed with.
coldtea 11y ago
>it’s not just that we have a shortage of free time; it’s also that our free time, in order to be satisfying, often must align with that of our friends and loved ones. We face a problem, in other words, of coordination. Isn't it obvious that if we all get more free time, it will align with others much more easily? So, it's not that "you don't need more free time", it's "you all need more free time".
- cryoshon 11y ago
  Yes, exactly. Work is detrimental to mental health, and not-work leads to shared mental health improving activities like socializing with family.
- douche 11y ago
  Assuming that the activities that you find satisfying involve interacting with other people. I'm pretty psyched when I have more solitary free time that I can devote to reading, or working on my own coding projects, or going hiking with my dog. Or just being free to deal with appointments and errands outside of the tiny windows of time that intersect between the business hours of other entities and my pre/post work hours and lunch breaks.
  - Disruptive_Dave 11y ago
    That was my qualm with this piece, too, although I realize we're in the minority re: putting a premium on time spent with the self. There wouldn't be much difference for me if my additional "free time" coincided with others being off work as well. Actually, it may slightly reduce my satisfaction with it, because then everyone would be flooding all the typical "off time" spots (gym, market, laundry, etc.), which I try to avoid at (almost) all costs.
  - coldtea 11y ago
    >Assuming that the activities that you find satisfying involve interacting with other people. I'd venture to say that for the majority of people, that is the case (the activities that they find satisfying involve interacting with other people). I mean, even introverts go on the internet and enjoy stuff involving interacting other people all the time, the just don't do them in close contact. But even things that don't involve other people directly (present or remote), they do involve other people in making them. E.g. reading a blog or a webcomic or listing to music, still involves these other people (its creators) making those things. Hence, when everybody gets more free time, then you get more free time to e.g. read, and others get more free time to write stuff that you'll eventually read.
coldtea 11y ago
>It seems obvious why working people cherish the weekend: It’s a respite from work. But why is the weekend also so important to the unemployed? The key to answering this question is to recognize that not all time is equal. Time is, in many ways, what sociologists call a “network good.” Maybe, besides the "network good" thing, it's also the fact that the workdays painfully remind the unemployed that they are unemployed?
danjoc 11y ago
My first jobs were retail. Everyone had weekend off except me. I hated it. Ten years in retail, and I dreamed of the day I would have a "career" and good pay and weekends off to enjoy it all. Then I got a career. Now everywhere I go is packed with people and lines. A trip to the grocery used to be on Wednesday around 2pm. I could fill a cart with anything I needed and get in and out in minutes. Now I go after work and wait in the "express" lane with my under 20 items for upwards of half an hour. I used to go out on a Tuesday night, because that was my weekend. Two for Tuesday everywhere! Happy hour, all the time. Fast service. Hot food. Now, I have to make reservations in advance to wait 20 minutes for a waiter, because the restaurant is short staffed. God help you if you forget the reservations, or the place doesn't take them. You'll easily wait an hour for a table on a Friday night. I take a weekend trip to a theme park and I have to park a mile away from the tram which is a mile or more away from the gates, where there are lines to get tickets and more lines to ride the rides. Just getting to the parking spot requires slow traffic. Lines of cars all doing the same thing. I've considered asking if I could work weekends at my career job. It would be quiet on Saturday and Sunday. I could get a lot of work done without tickets and support calls coming in all day long. But then, who would handle the tickets and support calls if I'm not there? What a pipe dream... To have a middle of the week "weekend" again would be so grand!
- skrebbel 11y ago
  > Now I go after work and wait in the "express" lane with my under 20 items for upwards of half an hour. wow, sounds like there's some space for competition in your country's supermarkets!
  - citizens 11y ago
    The line for Trader Joe's in Union Square NY always amazes me—it often has lines just to get inside the store. https://www.google.com/search?q=trader+joe%27s+14th+st+line&num=20&source=&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=trader+joe%27s+14th+st+line&...
    - robryan 11y ago
zenir 11y ago
"The solution might be found in a form of constraint: more standardization of the time for work and the time for life." And stuff gets even more crowded because everyone is free at the same time, yay.
- dasmoth 11y ago
  Like a lot of sociological research, I don't think this was written with knowledge workers with hobbies and/or side projects in mind. Still, I found that statement deeply frustrating.
robbrown451 11y ago
Sounds like a solvable problem, in theory anyway. Some sort of super-smart fuzzy logic scheduling app where you can plan all the things you want to do, and everyone who you might need to collaborate/meet with at work, all your friends you might want to meet up with at the pub or go on a hike with, your family, and everyone else relevant is on the same app. (ok in the perfect world it wouldn't be a proprietary app, but a standardized protocol so whatever app you happen to use negotiates with everyone else's apps) Your work hours would change from day to day and week to week, and all things might shift around (with the exception of things that can't, obviously) but that's ok. The longer ahead you plan things, the better, since you'd give it more flexibility, and the more flexible you are, the more you earn points you get to spend when you really need them. It would know things like traffic patterns and when things are crowded, so instead of just arranging leisure time on the same two days of the week, it would mix them up. And of course it should also take into account the weather. I'd like as much of my actual free time to coincide with sunshine.
andrewclunn 11y ago
This so does not apply to people with small kids.
- slowmovintarget 11y ago
  As the father of a 2yo... You are correct sir.
mbrock 11y ago
Being unemployed seems like a very different situation from having one more day off per week. If I had one more day off, my life would be the same in terms of social connection, except that I'd have more time to relax, recharge, and engage in solitary hobbies. The people I've worked with who have had Wednesdays off certainly weren't bored on their days off; they were giddy and triumphant on Tuesday afternoon and would spend the free day kayaking, fixing around the house, reading, etc.
- dasmoth 11y ago
  This resonates. Especially since having a kid, the tension between solitary and family activities at the weekend has been a real struggle.
  - mbrock 11y ago
    If I ever get married I'll put an alone day clause in the contract. I love you but I need to get away from everyone. It can be hard to say without seeming like you're saying "you're annoying me" but there's just something different about being alone. At least if I have a meditation bench, there's that.
    - learc83 11y ago
      The problem is that if you have kids, it's going to be almost impossible for both of you to get an alone day and still have time to do things together.
      - Grishnakh 11y ago
        Yep, that's probably a big reason people just aren't having many or any kids these days. Back in the "old days", people lived with multiple generations under one roof and with their extended families. So raising kids was easier because you had a lot of help: grandparents, uncles/aunts, etc. Then the "nuclear family" came along in the 50s and things started falling apart. It was OK for a while because women were relegated to near-slavery, but then things changed and we had two working parents, and then there wasn't enough time to parent properly.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
sreejithr 11y ago
BS. I love the weekends because I can sit in my room alone coding, reading a book or watching some TV series. Lack of social interaction is the highlight.
blabla_blublu 11y ago
The study does not account for the fact that some people simply choose to spend their free time by themselves and do not indulge in 'social' activities. Including the average size of the participant's social circle and how they chose to spent their free time could have been useful. I am sure a lot of people who travel around by themselves or spend the weekend(s) hiking/biking their favorite trail, etc. do not really rely on their free time coinciding with others'. Thoughts?
- davesque 11y ago
  I agree with this since I think I'm the person you're describing :).
- yason 11y ago
  Definitely so. For the half(?) of people who are like this, more time off from work would be valuable. It would mean more time for being alone and doing your own things. It's hard to take hours and hours of alone time if you're married with kids and you stick to the traditional work week schedule. You would basically need that "other weekend" for yourself, after having been with your family (and maybe friends) for the "first weekend".
- gutnor 11y ago
  Well it also assume the social circle is fixed. There are plenty of people doing activities all the days of the week. I worked part-time for a few months. I took a hobby and found that I could attend cheap course on the Wednesday afternoon (I think) and I was not alone, far from it. Those people became part of my social circle too - people I could meet within the week. I kept my regular circle for the we, which is what the other people attending the course did too. If it was not for the money, I can't think of any downside of that arrangement. Which bring me back to the article, it focuses on unemployed to try to derive a rule for all. A lot of unemployed are not unemployed by choice, and they expect to get back into employment. So they will not invest into a parallel social circle like a Stay at Home Parent could. In addition to that their free time could also be a reminder of their failure to find a job, or of their financial problem. And anyway, most people are only available during the we. So feeling a spike during the we is almost expected even if you are super-active during the week as you will have more time if anything with your partner/kids. Does that mean your week would be better with a job instead of hobbies, somehow I don't think that's the case.
mpweiher 11y ago
TL;DR: We all need more free time.
davesque 11y ago
Seems like an assumption to say that "time together" is the key difference. For example, at various times in my life when I've been jobless, I did experience similar peeks in my mood over the weekend. But I'm a solitary person and I was not necessarily spending that much more time with others. I would say that the difference was psychological. On the weekend, I felt okay relaxing because I knew everyone else was and the pressure was off of me to be looking for work. During the week, I couldn't escape thoughts about my joblessness. The article touches on this slightly when it characterizes the difference as being more in sync or out of sync with society.
egypturnash 11y ago
While the article's conceit that free time has more potential to make you happy when it's free time you can spend with your friends is not untrue, I think it's pretty obvious that people who are working fewer hours have more chances for their free time to intersect with their friends. If you and all your friends work 20 hours a week, but some of them have firm schedules where they're in the workplace 4h every weekday, while others are in the workplace for 8h two days and sporadic appearances the rest of the week, and whatever other configuration of that you can think of, you are all still going to have a generally higher chance of finding time to spend with each other than if you're all spending 60h working three part time jobs to make ends meet!
gopher2 11y ago
If this writer doesn't want their free time, can I have it? Yes I know... probably not the point of the article, but I couldn't get past the clicky-baity headline.
galfarragem 11y ago
What works best for me: a loose 9-17 that can be freely adapted according my daily needs (8-16, 10-18, 12-20, etc). Like this it seems that I have always time for everything.
leshow 11y ago
This study is flawed in so many ways, my guess is a lot of things are affecting jobless people's emotional states besides just when their friends are also free.
Legogris 11y ago
I think part of this is the cultural contemporary occidental focus on that some activities are inherently social. I think part of the decrease in happiness in unemployed people during weekdays is just the fact that they tend to not do anything they enjoy, because they think that they would not enjoy doing it alone. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/the-unexpected-pleasure-of-doing-things-alone/392486/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/the-unex...
joeguilmette 11y ago
I am a remote worker. Our team averages 15-30hrs/wk each. Some of us never get above 15. I personally average 25-30 when I'm at home, and 15-25 when I travel. I travel for about 6 months out of the year. If I am not in someone else's company and am able to open my laptop, I'm working. What I mean by that is when most people would be lounging on their couch with their laptop cruising reddit, or watching TV aimlessly, or reading, I end up thinking about work and then just clock in. I get my general goof-off online time via my phone when I'm getting from A to B or am otherwise not in a position to open my laptop. This means I very often end up working 7 days a week. I think a few times this year I hit 38hrs in a week. I generally keep track of work via my phone when I'm unavailable or working less and if something pops up I clock in and take care of it. This is just my nature and I'm happy I've found a job that gives me this type of flexibility. Filling work time into the bits of downtime that would otherwise be wasted allows me to match my free time to those that I love, like my father or partner (who is a schoolteacher and has frequent vacations). Maybe this isn't for everyone, but if I had to back to a traditional work environment I'd probably lose my mind. The ability to travel, visit my father for a few weeks, take a 10 day vacation with my partner multiple times per year (plus summer/winter break), wake up whenever I want, work out for 3hrs 3x per week, followed by an hours at the pool - that's amazing. I wouldn't trade this for anything. I think I am much, much productive in this type of work environment than any that I have ever had. It makes my work better, more focused, and keeps me happy & loyal. Flexibility is king.
kazinator 11y ago
> The weekend derives much of its importance from the fact that so many people are off work together. Oh, goodness no. The weekend is enjoyable in large part it because of those who work to keep businesses open.
dovdov 11y ago
I'd love to start a trend replacing "work" with "spending time at the workplace".
iradik 11y ago
This logic in the article is so shaky. Because unemployed people also feel sad on M-Thursday is a reason why an employed person doesn't need more free time? It doesn't make sense.

170 points by otoolep 11y ago

tl;dr - Free time is better when other people have the same time off as well. This feels like a bit of a no-brainer to me, but that doesn't mean more time off wouldn't be useful. Saturday and Sunday are usually spent catching up on work, doing some laundry and dishes, and all the other errands we didn't have time for during the week (groceries, repairs, etc.). We have more leisure time as well, but a few hours here and there during the week are quite useful, even if nobody I know shares those hours, as they would let me shift the "boring" stuff to a time when nobody else is free. Life is better if I can meet a few friends for brunch Sunday morning because I had time to get groceries on Tuesday and do laundry on Thursday.

ritchiea 11y ago
Exactly! And just because free time is better when there are others around doesn't mean that extra days off aren't helpful. I'm a contractor and I regularly have a week or two off between jobs. Sure the weekend is still better than a Tuesday without work but I can take time on that Tuesday to go to a movie or a museum on my own and it feels great. And another thing the study fails to account for is that unemployed people are less likely to enjoy their days off than employed people. Being unemployed and seeking a job is stressful, many unemployed people are concerned about how long it will take to find a new job or what kind of stress is being put on their finances. If you have stable work and get Wednesday off you can go to the spa and spend some time in the sauna to relax. If you are unemployed you are probably being frugal and know it's not wise to spend money that you may need later to pay your rent. This article is narrow sighted rubbish trying to twist the author's research to have greater impact.

cryoshon 11y ago

"The intuitive finding was that people’s feelings of well-being closely tracked the workweek. As measured by things such as anxiety, stress, laughter and enjoyment, our well-being is lowest Monday through Thursday. The workweek is a slog. Well-being edges up on Friday, and really peaks on Saturday and Sunday. We are, in a real sense, living for the weekend." Great, another person admitting that American work culture is slowly killing people, even the people who aren't actively working. This is an impetus for change. "This conclusion points to a key feature of the work-life problem: You cannot get more “weekend” simply by taking an extra day off work yourself. If we were to take more time off as individuals, we would be likely to spend that time, as the jobless do, waiting for other people to finish work. We are stuck “at work,” in a sense, by the work schedules of our family and friends." Yes, I found this to be true during my times of unemployment, but only if I assumed that my daytime hours had to be waiting... there are many ways to be useful during the day without a job, however that time period will not be relaxing. Sounds like "more free time" and less "time spent filling a seat" would lead to more general wellbeing in both employed and unemployed people because people would have more shared time together and less time in the stressful and mentally detrimental work environment. My solution: make all weekends three day weekends and don't alter the amount that people are paid. Remove the outdated and harmful protestant work ethic and replace it with the German work ethic: do the work that is requested of you at maximum efficiency, then leave immediately afterward, and do not answer the phone or emails. Gutting the idiotic and nigh-suicidal affinity that people have for wasting time at work without actually doing anything would also help. So yeah, we do need more free time, because time spent at work is typically wasted time as well as mentally unhealthy time. If everyone gets more free time on the same day, I assume better mental health would result. To be clear, we've reached the point in our technological development that this goal is eminently possible if there were political will or popular revolt.

abalashov 11y ago

Having been self-employed for eight years now, with all the 24/7 life/work home/office work/play crossover it brings, it's been so long since I could relate to this perspective, or experience the joy of happy hour or TGIF. I often work weekends, while am prone to accomplish very little on a random Wednesday. It's not that I'm always working or that I'm preternaturally time-efficient, organised or productive, it's just that there are no clear boundaries between work and non-work hours (for good or ill), nor between most friends and colleagues. Maybe this doesn't apply to most people, but with the proportion of the economy accounted for by solitary freelancers expected to rise, I would think I'm not the only one who doesn't even remember what weekends or holidays are anymore. If so, it seems to me that a more enlightened and forward-thinking perspective would take into account the fluidity of work-life space for many Millennials (and beyond), rather than trying to shoehorn us back into mid 20th century big-corporate life rhythms. EDIT: My personal investment in that viewpoint has been largely about finding better workplaces and better ways to work, e.g. http://likewise.am/2015/12/18/why-i-love-industrious-and-about-coworking-and-offices-more-generally/ http://likewise.am/2015/12/18/why-i-love-industrious-and-abo...

Disruptive_Dave 11y ago
I've been working from home for about 8 years now as well, as a director of an agency, as a freelance consultant, and as a startup co-founder. Until I put into place some structure around my work hours, I was less productive and enjoyed my life less. Your final sentence seems to ask for more "enlightened" views on an unstructured work environment, but you seem to be displeased with yours; am I reading that correctly?
- abalashov 11y ago
  I'm not necessarily displeased with the very fact per se, though in my particular case it was an extremely - and shortsightedly - solipsistic choice for a (then) 22 year-old extrovert to make. I agree that structure and routine are essential. However, many people, including myself, ended up in self-employment in part because they can't do 9-to-5 well or consistently for years on end.
11y ago

spacehome 11y ago

I'm retired and I still want more free time.

bisRepetita 11y ago
Please expand on this. Sincerely curious why/how.
- spacehome 11y ago
  Is it so hard to imagine? Like most here, I enjoy a wide variety of pursuits. I'm not sure the specific pursuits would matter; everyone can fill in their own blanks. A single pursuit could easily take dozens of hours per week or more to enjoy in their fullness. Add in physical fitness, sleep, cooking, and hygiene, and that's more time than I'm blessed with.

coldtea 11y ago

>it’s not just that we have a shortage of free time; it’s also that our free time, in order to be satisfying, often must align with that of our friends and loved ones. We face a problem, in other words, of coordination. Isn't it obvious that if we all get more free time, it will align with others much more easily? So, it's not that "you don't need more free time", it's "you all need more free time".

cryoshon 11y ago
Yes, exactly. Work is detrimental to mental health, and not-work leads to shared mental health improving activities like socializing with family.
douche 11y ago
Assuming that the activities that you find satisfying involve interacting with other people. I'm pretty psyched when I have more solitary free time that I can devote to reading, or working on my own coding projects, or going hiking with my dog. Or just being free to deal with appointments and errands outside of the tiny windows of time that intersect between the business hours of other entities and my pre/post work hours and lunch breaks.
- Disruptive_Dave 11y ago
  That was my qualm with this piece, too, although I realize we're in the minority re: putting a premium on time spent with the self. There wouldn't be much difference for me if my additional "free time" coincided with others being off work as well. Actually, it may slightly reduce my satisfaction with it, because then everyone would be flooding all the typical "off time" spots (gym, market, laundry, etc.), which I try to avoid at (almost) all costs.
- coldtea 11y ago
  >Assuming that the activities that you find satisfying involve interacting with other people. I'd venture to say that for the majority of people, that is the case (the activities that they find satisfying involve interacting with other people). I mean, even introverts go on the internet and enjoy stuff involving interacting other people all the time, the just don't do them in close contact. But even things that don't involve other people directly (present or remote), they do involve other people in making them. E.g. reading a blog or a webcomic or listing to music, still involves these other people (its creators) making those things. Hence, when everybody gets more free time, then you get more free time to e.g. read, and others get more free time to write stuff that you'll eventually read.

coldtea 11y ago

>It seems obvious why working people cherish the weekend: It’s a respite from work. But why is the weekend also so important to the unemployed? The key to answering this question is to recognize that not all time is equal. Time is, in many ways, what sociologists call a “network good.” Maybe, besides the "network good" thing, it's also the fact that the workdays painfully remind the unemployed that they are unemployed?

danjoc 11y ago

My first jobs were retail. Everyone had weekend off except me. I hated it. Ten years in retail, and I dreamed of the day I would have a "career" and good pay and weekends off to enjoy it all. Then I got a career. Now everywhere I go is packed with people and lines. A trip to the grocery used to be on Wednesday around 2pm. I could fill a cart with anything I needed and get in and out in minutes. Now I go after work and wait in the "express" lane with my under 20 items for upwards of half an hour. I used to go out on a Tuesday night, because that was my weekend. Two for Tuesday everywhere! Happy hour, all the time. Fast service. Hot food. Now, I have to make reservations in advance to wait 20 minutes for a waiter, because the restaurant is short staffed. God help you if you forget the reservations, or the place doesn't take them. You'll easily wait an hour for a table on a Friday night. I take a weekend trip to a theme park and I have to park a mile away from the tram which is a mile or more away from the gates, where there are lines to get tickets and more lines to ride the rides. Just getting to the parking spot requires slow traffic. Lines of cars all doing the same thing. I've considered asking if I could work weekends at my career job. It would be quiet on Saturday and Sunday. I could get a lot of work done without tickets and support calls coming in all day long. But then, who would handle the tickets and support calls if I'm not there? What a pipe dream... To have a middle of the week "weekend" again would be so grand!

skrebbel 11y ago
> Now I go after work and wait in the "express" lane with my under 20 items for upwards of half an hour. wow, sounds like there's some space for competition in your country's supermarkets!
- citizens 11y ago
  The line for Trader Joe's in Union Square NY always amazes me—it often has lines just to get inside the store. https://www.google.com/search?q=trader+joe%27s+14th+st+line&num=20&source=&tbm=isch https://www.google.com/search?q=trader+joe%27s+14th+st+line&...
  - robryan 11y ago

zenir 11y ago

"The solution might be found in a form of constraint: more standardization of the time for work and the time for life." And stuff gets even more crowded because everyone is free at the same time, yay.

dasmoth 11y ago
Like a lot of sociological research, I don't think this was written with knowledge workers with hobbies and/or side projects in mind. Still, I found that statement deeply frustrating.

robbrown451 11y ago

Sounds like a solvable problem, in theory anyway. Some sort of super-smart fuzzy logic scheduling app where you can plan all the things you want to do, and everyone who you might need to collaborate/meet with at work, all your friends you might want to meet up with at the pub or go on a hike with, your family, and everyone else relevant is on the same app. (ok in the perfect world it wouldn't be a proprietary app, but a standardized protocol so whatever app you happen to use negotiates with everyone else's apps) Your work hours would change from day to day and week to week, and all things might shift around (with the exception of things that can't, obviously) but that's ok. The longer ahead you plan things, the better, since you'd give it more flexibility, and the more flexible you are, the more you earn points you get to spend when you really need them. It would know things like traffic patterns and when things are crowded, so instead of just arranging leisure time on the same two days of the week, it would mix them up. And of course it should also take into account the weather. I'd like as much of my actual free time to coincide with sunshine.

andrewclunn 11y ago

This so does not apply to people with small kids.

slowmovintarget 11y ago
As the father of a 2yo... You are correct sir.

mbrock 11y ago

Being unemployed seems like a very different situation from having one more day off per week. If I had one more day off, my life would be the same in terms of social connection, except that I'd have more time to relax, recharge, and engage in solitary hobbies. The people I've worked with who have had Wednesdays off certainly weren't bored on their days off; they were giddy and triumphant on Tuesday afternoon and would spend the free day kayaking, fixing around the house, reading, etc.

dasmoth 11y ago
This resonates. Especially since having a kid, the tension between solitary and family activities at the weekend has been a real struggle.
- mbrock 11y ago
  If I ever get married I'll put an alone day clause in the contract. I love you but I need to get away from everyone. It can be hard to say without seeming like you're saying "you're annoying me" but there's just something different about being alone. At least if I have a meditation bench, there's that.
  - learc83 11y ago
    The problem is that if you have kids, it's going to be almost impossible for both of you to get an alone day and still have time to do things together.
    - Grishnakh 11y ago
      Yep, that's probably a big reason people just aren't having many or any kids these days. Back in the "old days", people lived with multiple generations under one roof and with their extended families. So raising kids was easier because you had a lot of help: grandparents, uncles/aunts, etc. Then the "nuclear family" came along in the 50s and things started falling apart. It was OK for a while because women were relegated to near-slavery, but then things changed and we had two working parents, and then there wasn't enough time to parent properly.

deleted 11y ago

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sreejithr 11y ago

BS. I love the weekends because I can sit in my room alone coding, reading a book or watching some TV series. Lack of social interaction is the highlight.

blabla_blublu 11y ago

The study does not account for the fact that some people simply choose to spend their free time by themselves and do not indulge in 'social' activities. Including the average size of the participant's social circle and how they chose to spent their free time could have been useful. I am sure a lot of people who travel around by themselves or spend the weekend(s) hiking/biking their favorite trail, etc. do not really rely on their free time coinciding with others'. Thoughts?

davesque 11y ago
I agree with this since I think I'm the person you're describing :).
yason 11y ago
Definitely so. For the half(?) of people who are like this, more time off from work would be valuable. It would mean more time for being alone and doing your own things. It's hard to take hours and hours of alone time if you're married with kids and you stick to the traditional work week schedule. You would basically need that "other weekend" for yourself, after having been with your family (and maybe friends) for the "first weekend".
gutnor 11y ago
Well it also assume the social circle is fixed. There are plenty of people doing activities all the days of the week. I worked part-time for a few months. I took a hobby and found that I could attend cheap course on the Wednesday afternoon (I think) and I was not alone, far from it. Those people became part of my social circle too - people I could meet within the week. I kept my regular circle for the we, which is what the other people attending the course did too. If it was not for the money, I can't think of any downside of that arrangement. Which bring me back to the article, it focuses on unemployed to try to derive a rule for all. A lot of unemployed are not unemployed by choice, and they expect to get back into employment. So they will not invest into a parallel social circle like a Stay at Home Parent could. In addition to that their free time could also be a reminder of their failure to find a job, or of their financial problem. And anyway, most people are only available during the we. So feeling a spike during the we is almost expected even if you are super-active during the week as you will have more time if anything with your partner/kids. Does that mean your week would be better with a job instead of hobbies, somehow I don't think that's the case.

mpweiher 11y ago

TL;DR: We all need more free time.

davesque 11y ago

Seems like an assumption to say that "time together" is the key difference. For example, at various times in my life when I've been jobless, I did experience similar peeks in my mood over the weekend. But I'm a solitary person and I was not necessarily spending that much more time with others. I would say that the difference was psychological. On the weekend, I felt okay relaxing because I knew everyone else was and the pressure was off of me to be looking for work. During the week, I couldn't escape thoughts about my joblessness. The article touches on this slightly when it characterizes the difference as being more in sync or out of sync with society.

egypturnash 11y ago

While the article's conceit that free time has more potential to make you happy when it's free time you can spend with your friends is not untrue, I think it's pretty obvious that people who are working fewer hours have more chances for their free time to intersect with their friends. If you and all your friends work 20 hours a week, but some of them have firm schedules where they're in the workplace 4h every weekday, while others are in the workplace for 8h two days and sporadic appearances the rest of the week, and whatever other configuration of that you can think of, you are all still going to have a generally higher chance of finding time to spend with each other than if you're all spending 60h working three part time jobs to make ends meet!

gopher2 11y ago

If this writer doesn't want their free time, can I have it? Yes I know... probably not the point of the article, but I couldn't get past the clicky-baity headline.

galfarragem 11y ago

What works best for me: a loose 9-17 that can be freely adapted according my daily needs (8-16, 10-18, 12-20, etc). Like this it seems that I have always time for everything.

leshow 11y ago

This study is flawed in so many ways, my guess is a lot of things are affecting jobless people's emotional states besides just when their friends are also free.

Legogris 11y ago

I think part of this is the cultural contemporary occidental focus on that some activities are inherently social. I think part of the decrease in happiness in unemployed people during weekdays is just the fact that they tend to not do anything they enjoy, because they think that they would not enjoy doing it alone. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/the-unexpected-pleasure-of-doing-things-alone/392486/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/05/the-unex...

joeguilmette 11y ago

I am a remote worker. Our team averages 15-30hrs/wk each. Some of us never get above 15. I personally average 25-30 when I'm at home, and 15-25 when I travel. I travel for about 6 months out of the year. If I am not in someone else's company and am able to open my laptop, I'm working. What I mean by that is when most people would be lounging on their couch with their laptop cruising reddit, or watching TV aimlessly, or reading, I end up thinking about work and then just clock in. I get my general goof-off online time via my phone when I'm getting from A to B or am otherwise not in a position to open my laptop. This means I very often end up working 7 days a week. I think a few times this year I hit 38hrs in a week. I generally keep track of work via my phone when I'm unavailable or working less and if something pops up I clock in and take care of it. This is just my nature and I'm happy I've found a job that gives me this type of flexibility. Filling work time into the bits of downtime that would otherwise be wasted allows me to match my free time to those that I love, like my father or partner (who is a schoolteacher and has frequent vacations). Maybe this isn't for everyone, but if I had to back to a traditional work environment I'd probably lose my mind. The ability to travel, visit my father for a few weeks, take a 10 day vacation with my partner multiple times per year (plus summer/winter break), wake up whenever I want, work out for 3hrs 3x per week, followed by an hours at the pool - that's amazing. I wouldn't trade this for anything. I think I am much, much productive in this type of work environment than any that I have ever had. It makes my work better, more focused, and keeps me happy & loyal. Flexibility is king.

kazinator 11y ago

> The weekend derives much of its importance from the fact that so many people are off work together. Oh, goodness no. The weekend is enjoyable in large part it because of those who work to keep businesses open.

dovdov 11y ago

I'd love to start a trend replacing "work" with "spending time at the workplace".

iradik 11y ago

This logic in the article is so shaky. Because unemployed people also feel sad on M-Thursday is a reason why an employed person doesn't need more free time? It doesn't make sense.