St Monday
I'm a hard worker,
But I ain't working on a Monday.
I'm a hard worker,
But I ain't working on a Monday.
A hard working fellow
I ain't working on a Monday,
St. Monday's still the weekend to me.
Billy Bragg
"Keeping St. Monday" meant observing Monday as a holiday. St. Monday is the tradition of absenteeism on a Monday. St. Tuesday is the less common extension of this to the Tuesday.
Feudalism in the Middle Ages did not necessarily mean that the life of the average British worker was one of unremitting toil. Far from it. Production was largely agricultural so time off work was partly governed by the seasons of the year. Even so, the Church made sure work was always interrupted to commemorate the many holidays (holy days) (which usually occurred in Winter when work in the fields was often impossible anyway. )The Church, as the most powerful social and political institution in feudalism, decreed when and how many holy days should be observed. In medieval England and, right into the 17th century, the Catholic countries of Europe there were over a hundred holy days a year on which no work could be done and Church courts inflicted fasts and penances on those who broke this law. Further opportunities for leisure were provided by the many Fairs which had their real purpose to provide essential trading outlets and for hiring workers. Workers enjoyed much more free time than they do today.
In London "St. Monday" was commonly observed in 1750, it had nearly disappeared by 1800 along with about 53 "holy days," leading to an increase in annual working hours from 2,288 to 3,666. The working week in London during the 1750s was clearly shorter than five days,
The concept of a weekend as we know it had not yet been established, and the conventional work week was Monday to Saturday. Sunday was meant for church. Pay day was typically Saturday, and therefore workers often had spare money on Monday. They declared Monday a public holiday of sorts, often to recover from the binge drinking that was commonplace on Sundays. "Piece work" was often the norm with workers adapting their skills to operate on flexible working periods. If they missed Monday they could make it up by working extra hard at the end of the week in order to have more free time.
Business owners in some industries had become accustomed to workers not arriving on Monday. Of course, all this made scheduling work efficiently almost impossible, but the concept of the conveyor belt had yet to be invented. The worship of St Monday had troubled an inspector called Edward White who reported to the Children's Employment Commission of 1864. "In Birmingham," he wrote (but it could have been any of the other great manufacturing cities), "an enormous amount of time is lost, not only by want of punctuality in coming to work in the morning and beginning again after meals, but still more by the general observance of 'Saint Monday', which is shown in the late attendance or entire absence of large numbers on that day. One employer has on Monday only about 40 or 50 out of 300 or 400, and the day is recognised by many masters as an hour shorter than others at each end ..."
Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the US. had no truck with welfare provisions for the working class. He said: “ I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty... Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. St. Monday and St. Tuesday, will soon cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase..."
Modern industrial society requires its work to be carried on throughout the year as the market knows no seasons and it has the artificial means (factories, mills, etc.) to do this. In order that the machines do not stand `idle', workers are not allowed to stand idle either.Working life was becoming increasingly regulated, and the working week was reorganised to promote ever-greater efficiency. Long days and shift working are unnatural and unnecessary. Some workers do of course have to work `unsocial' hours: emergency staff such as nurses and firefighter or people who do repair work on roads or railways when others are not using them, and of course those in the leisure industry workers in pubs or restaurants. It took many years for the employers to enforce their discipline. But enforce it they had to. The more they could control the hours and intensity by which their workers laboured, the more they could maximise their profits.
The habit of taking St Monday off did not die with industrialisation and informal re-defining of working-time persist now. More than four-fifths of employees have called in with pretended sickness just to have a day off, according to a 2004 survey. And 66% of those who took a "sickie" did not feel any guilt. Most happen to be Mondays. Following Karl Marx's son-in-law Paul Lafargue, SOYMB supports the right to be lazy. So lets drink to the health of St. Monday
I'm a hard worker,
But I ain't working on a Monday.
I'm a hard worker,
But I ain't working on a Monday.
A hard working fellow
I ain't working on a Monday,
St. Monday's still the weekend to me.
Billy Bragg
"Keeping St. Monday" meant observing Monday as a holiday. St. Monday is the tradition of absenteeism on a Monday. St. Tuesday is the less common extension of this to the Tuesday.
Feudalism in the Middle Ages did not necessarily mean that the life of the average British worker was one of unremitting toil. Far from it. Production was largely agricultural so time off work was partly governed by the seasons of the year. Even so, the Church made sure work was always interrupted to commemorate the many holidays (holy days) (which usually occurred in Winter when work in the fields was often impossible anyway. )The Church, as the most powerful social and political institution in feudalism, decreed when and how many holy days should be observed. In medieval England and, right into the 17th century, the Catholic countries of Europe there were over a hundred holy days a year on which no work could be done and Church courts inflicted fasts and penances on those who broke this law. Further opportunities for leisure were provided by the many Fairs which had their real purpose to provide essential trading outlets and for hiring workers. Workers enjoyed much more free time than they do today.
In London "St. Monday" was commonly observed in 1750, it had nearly disappeared by 1800 along with about 53 "holy days," leading to an increase in annual working hours from 2,288 to 3,666. The working week in London during the 1750s was clearly shorter than five days,
The concept of a weekend as we know it had not yet been established, and the conventional work week was Monday to Saturday. Sunday was meant for church. Pay day was typically Saturday, and therefore workers often had spare money on Monday. They declared Monday a public holiday of sorts, often to recover from the binge drinking that was commonplace on Sundays. "Piece work" was often the norm with workers adapting their skills to operate on flexible working periods. If they missed Monday they could make it up by working extra hard at the end of the week in order to have more free time.
Business owners in some industries had become accustomed to workers not arriving on Monday. Of course, all this made scheduling work efficiently almost impossible, but the concept of the conveyor belt had yet to be invented. The worship of St Monday had troubled an inspector called Edward White who reported to the Children's Employment Commission of 1864. "In Birmingham," he wrote (but it could have been any of the other great manufacturing cities), "an enormous amount of time is lost, not only by want of punctuality in coming to work in the morning and beginning again after meals, but still more by the general observance of 'Saint Monday', which is shown in the late attendance or entire absence of large numbers on that day. One employer has on Monday only about 40 or 50 out of 300 or 400, and the day is recognised by many masters as an hour shorter than others at each end ..."
Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the US. had no truck with welfare provisions for the working class. He said: “ I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty... Repeal that [welfare] law, and you will soon see a change in their manners. St. Monday and St. Tuesday, will soon cease to be holidays. Six days shalt thou labor, though one of the old commandments long treated as out of date, will again be looked upon as a respectable precept; industry will increase..."
Modern industrial society requires its work to be carried on throughout the year as the market knows no seasons and it has the artificial means (factories, mills, etc.) to do this. In order that the machines do not stand `idle', workers are not allowed to stand idle either.Working life was becoming increasingly regulated, and the working week was reorganised to promote ever-greater efficiency. Long days and shift working are unnatural and unnecessary. Some workers do of course have to work `unsocial' hours: emergency staff such as nurses and firefighter or people who do repair work on roads or railways when others are not using them, and of course those in the leisure industry workers in pubs or restaurants. It took many years for the employers to enforce their discipline. But enforce it they had to. The more they could control the hours and intensity by which their workers laboured, the more they could maximise their profits.
The habit of taking St Monday off did not die with industrialisation and informal re-defining of working-time persist now. More than four-fifths of employees have called in with pretended sickness just to have a day off, according to a 2004 survey. And 66% of those who took a "sickie" did not feel any guilt. Most happen to be Mondays. Following Karl Marx's son-in-law Paul Lafargue, SOYMB supports the right to be lazy. So lets drink to the health of St. Monday
2 comments:
The words of his song are very pre-crisis. See this from the Daily Mail online last Tuesday:
"Millions of workers are too scared to take time off sick because of redundancy threat during economic downturn
Report issued by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
Culture of 'presenteeism' is sweeping Britain as workers come into office
Third of bosses observe increase in workers who 'struggle in when unwell'"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214898/Millions-workers-scared-time-sick-threat-redundancy.html
True enough. See our earlier blog http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2012/10/work-til-you-drop.html
But i dare say many still indulge in St Monday - just a bit more careful.
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