For Many The Weekend Is All About Work

It’s natural on a Friday or even Saturday morning to say “have a nice weekend” to just about anyone you come in contact with.  For those who work Monday through Friday the weekend is when you are off from work and hopefully can relax and chill a bit.  However there’s a pretty good chance you are sending those wishes to someone who won’t have Saturday and/or Sunday off.

Prior to the pandemic nearly one-third of single-job workers clock in on a Saturday or Sunday and in some cases both days.  Clearly many of them work in retail, food service, hospitals, law enforcement, convenience stores and of course in our area those numbers rise tremendously in the summer months.  Let’s be honest, if you work in any tourism-related business it’s likely the weekend finds you at work.  By the way two-thirds of those who work more than one job are working at least one of the weekend days.  Also interesting to note is that nearly 25% of American workers work at night which is between 10pm and 6am.  I would think some of these statistics have changed during the pandemic.

We in the U.S. work more hours than in most other industrialized countries…full-time workers put in more than 40 hours a week and some surveys show that more than a third of us work over 50 hours each week.

Not only do we get less vacation time than those in many other countries but many don’t even make use of all their time off even if where they work its “use it or lose it” during the calendar year.  Most of us don’t leave jobs with large payouts for not taking vacation or sick days because when we are out we’re not replaced…the work just piles up until we return.

I guess my message here is when you wish someone a nice weekend don’t be surprised if for them Saturday and Sunday are just two more days to work and not play.

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