The Quiet Revolution of the Sabbath
newyorker.com
newyorker.com
edit: nope i was wrong, sry
t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶d̶o̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶c̶e̶s̶s̶e̶d̶/̶s̶h̶i̶p̶p̶e̶d̶/̶r̶d̶y̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶p̶i̶c̶k̶u̶p̶ ̶u̶n̶t̶i̶l̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶n̶e̶x̶t̶ ̶o̶p̶e̶n̶ ̶d̶a̶y̶
imo this is fine, i mostly use them for business purchases, which i usually dont need over the weekend (its fun to go to their store on lazy sundays though...)
Perhaps. Hadn't check recently.
You also get signs like "Will be Closed for Yom Kippur" like you see signs for "Closed for Easter" etc.
Money isn’t life.
They are testing a concept restaurant that has four drive through lanes and the kitchen on the second level. https://www.wfla.com/news/national/chick-fil-a-restaurant-to...
The ones where I am are double lane drive through where the lines snake around and there are people roving the lanes to take drive through orders before they even reach the window.
The "Business Model" section of their Wikipedia page has more info on this if you're curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick-fil-A
(BTW, it also says they gross an average of $4.8 million per year per location, in 2016 at least. That's the highest sales of any Fast Food franchise in the US, vs the next in line, Whataburger, at only $2.7M per location per year. So being closed on Sunday doesn't seem like a big issue for them.)
Chick-fil-a was the single worst job I've ever had, but at least I didn't work on Sundays.
I had some run-of-the-mill frustrations at the time, but looking back on it I realize that I was always treated fairly and with as much flexibility, consideration, and respect as an otherwise completely unskilled teen just interested in saving up for an Xbox could ask for. There was zero abuse, zero exploitative pressure, zero sketchy behind the scenes stuff to cut cost or whatever.
I've never worked fast food other than Chick-fil-A so I can't really compare what the average conditions are like at any other fast food McJob, but my experience at Chick-fil-A was pretty much across the board positive and I think it set me up to have the right kind of expectations of myself and of the kind of employer I want to work for ever since.
And to one of the parent's points, when the debate about Sunday store closing laws came up in Louisiana in the 80s, one of the arguments against making changes was that mom and pop stores, largely staffed by the owners, couldn't realistically open for seven days while, for the big chains, it was just a dollars and cents calculation.
When Poland enacted its ban on Sunday shopping, things worked the very opposite: the law allows a convenience store to stay open 7 days a week if it is owner-operated, and indeed these shops are the places on which people depend on Sundays.
It is perhaps less convenient, but that doesn't make it bad. Lived in an EU country until recently, where everything is closed on Sunday. It makes that day much more restful, and it doesn't take long to learn to get your shopping done on Saturday.
Also, it is still illegal to use power tools outside on Sunday. Which means you aren't disturbed by your neighbor's leaf blower.
Honestly, I prefer 1 day a week of true rest over more convenience but never a true rest.
(Yes, emergency services and all that. Modern Israel has already thought of that one.)
It's partly a cultural thing - in both Germany and Israel, for very different reasons, "we own your Sabbath" would not fly. UK/US it seems to be much more normal to assume employees are always available, though it varies by sector.
There's an emergency every other day? Nope. That's a management issue. Hire some people to work those hours, or fix things so that "emergencies" quit happening.
That seems to be pretty much the issue with the ASLEF/RMT strikes on the UK railways at the moment. At least in the sense that "emergency" means we'd have to cancel a train if someone doesn't work that overtime.
Obviously, if it is a genuine rare emergency, most people are generally fine to help if they are around.
Edited to say that this attitude never got me in trouble. Given the conversation on mental health, work-life balance etc this clear boundary seems to be well respected. I’m in the UK.
I've definitely met people who haven't been able to leave their work behind when on holiday. I've not worked anywhere where that's a majority, but as a minority they were obviously more noticed for it, especially when they were sending emails at 5am or from a beach somewhere.
They would reject the advice that they should just stop working sometimes, they saw themselves as too important and too critical to the business. They imagined that if they didn't respond to an email the same day they received it that the business would fall apart.
This isn't the case of course, but they lived in fear that they'd "let the company down", or that things would fall apart without them being always available, but they never let that actually be tested.
One infamous colleague was rumoured to be replying to business emails on their honeymoon. ( Probably just a rumour. I hope. )
Indeed, had they tested it, they'd have likely discovered that they would get away with being on holiday without responding. Indeed even that having work/life boundaries are actually seen as a positive thing not a detriment.
I found myself suddenly taking 14 months off work from zero notice due to my health. Despite the fact I thought myself as fairly important to the development team at that time, but did the business fall apart? No, it just got on with adapting to the new reality and my absence was barely felt.
It can be uncomfortable for some, but the business will manage without you. Indeed if it couldn't, then that's a critical failure point that should be optimised out. You're also preventing yourself from being promoted if you've put the business in a situation where literally no-one else can fill your role.
I find I get frustrated when people don't test limits nearly enough, especially when those limits are either imagined or due to too much deference to the concept of "the business" as some kind of entity that must be pleased.
People will work long hours, or work their weekends so that they never miss a deadline, but have never tested to see what happens if that deadline gets missed. The reality might be that they actually get more resource to do it in time, rather than the imagined reality of disaster for everyone.
Especially in the UK with good employment laws, there is never a case where someone could be dismissed for not working their weekends. It almost surely would be unfair dismissal, and companies know this. But that doesn't stop inexperienced workers from half-killing themselves to get something done.
And that stress can bleed into their interactions with other colleagues, no just because overworking increases stress generally, but because they will often see colleagues who refuse to sacrifice their free time as "lazy", further increasing hostility.
Becoming trapped by the imagined result from saying "no" or setting boundaries causes those walls to grow higher, as norms in relationships are set around crazy hours or never saying no, increasing the size of the perceived disaster to finally saying no.
Eventually this often leads to burnout or worse, finally snapping and unreasonably shutting down completely in what used to be termed a "nervous breakdown" although I suspect that term isn't the current one.
I've learned to set expectations early, even signalling in interview, that I will not be that kind of person. That I'm comfortable setting boundaries and comfortable with challenging people who over-work.
And, yes, I've taken a month off here and there and things were fine--but there were people who were pretty much shocked I could just go and do that.
in Deuteronomy, it is written: “Six days you shall labor and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant, or your maidservant, or your ox, or your ass, or any of your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you.”
I.e. you are already not supposed to do any form of work on Shabbat just based on the existing commandments. Naturally that includes work via email or IM.
Religion could be useful if it could simply ban shitty software like those examples.
Isn't that how the angels talked with the gods?
Modern Israel doesn't have anything close to a commandment that one shall not view one's work email on the Sabbath :)
More seriously, while a large percentage of Israel are religious Jews, a large part of it are secular Jews who don't keep the Sabbath, and a large part are Muslims.
There are some things that are closed on Saturday, and there are laws about things having to be closed, but in lots of cities many things are still open.
It is still true to say that a lot of stuff is closed on Saturday (most stores are closed), and this is a big problem, since for many people, Saturday is their only day off, and they can't do any shopping on that day. If you need to e.g. go with your kids to buy new shoes, you can't do it on your one day off, so it's a pain. (Fridays things are open, but close early, and most kids have school on Friday.)
So all of this is a mixed bag, honestly.
I find that it does a really good job of resetting / breaking the dopamine cycles. Going a day without being online every so often results in me at least being less tied to the Internet for well being the rest of the week.
Nowadays, I'm a lot more intentional about when I use social media in particular. It may not be causation, the whole thing could just be correlations. But it feels almost rebellious to unplug like that for a day.
There was a Max Headroom episode (dating myself here) where someone got in trouble for having the ability to turn off their TV. Like all of society was structured around being in front of the TV at all times.
Then there's this practice I only recently heard about, "The Wire That Transforms Much of Manhattan Into One Big, Symbolic Home"[0]
[0]https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/eruv-manhattan-invisib...
Elevators in some Miami Beach hotels have a Shabbat mode where they simply stop on every floor, open the doors, wait a minute, then close the doors. It's to allow observant Jews to use them without operating a switch.
We Jews are a funny bunch, finding ways to work around our 613 commandments without breaking them. You're generally not allowed to tear things on Shabbat, so observant Jews will pre-tear toilet paper and set aside a bunch of squares for the day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabbath_mode
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/613_commandments
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/484233/jewish...
There are Eruvim all over the world, almost wherever there is a concentration of Orthodox Jews:
That being said, I have to laugh at a lot of the "Sabbath" mode stuff, because it's purposeful self deception. If you use an elevator at all, even in sabbath mode that is fully automated, just your physical presence is actuating several physical switches and logical systems, with plenty of sparks generated from relays opening and closing.
- those who follow the religion above and beyond
- those who "cheat" the rules
- those who follow the religion bare minimum
- those who explicitly reject the religion
- those who don't care about the religion
The rubric under which all the actions prohibited on the Sabbath fall is referred to as melakhah. It is an expansive term, first used in the Hebrew Bible to describe the full range of activities which God engaged in to create the world. The only term which really approximates its scope is Jacques Ellul’s la technique, defined as “the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity.” The heuristic which the rabbis of the Talmud used to determine melakhah is simple: if the action was performed in the course of the building of the Tabernacle, which after all functioned both as a mikrokosmos in the technical sense and as a microcosm of human society, it was forbidden on the Sabbath.
No need to have to shutdown the business or for employees to skip every second Christmas, Diwali, Ramadan, Friday prayer, Sabbath etc if you have colleagues from other religions cover for you.
> With meticulous archival research that draws on a wide array of sources—including newspapers, restaurant menus, theater schedules, marriage records, school curricula, folklore, housekeeping guides, courtroom testimony, and diaries—David Henkin reveals how our current devotion to weekly rhythms emerged in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century. Reconstructing how weekly patterns insinuated themselves into the social practices and mental habits of Americans, Henkin argues that the week is more than just a regimen of rest days or breaks from work, but a dominant organizational principle of modern society. Ultimately, the seven-day week shapes our understanding and experience of time.
* https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300271157/the-week/
* https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57615569-the-week
Yes, Christianity has been around for two thousand years, and the Lord's Day was celebrated, but in the pre-Reformation days there were many feast days for saints, both on a national and international scale, but also more local/regional celebrations, so folks had Holy Days (holidays) sprinkled between Sundays as well. People would often tell time not in day-of-week or day-month, but with regards to (liturgical) seasons and feast days, e.g.:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Crispin%27s_Day_Speech
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Crispin%27s_Day
Also, pre-Industrial Revolution, most work was fairly agricultural, which was much more 'continuous' in that you couldn't really 'shut down' a farm: livestock and such had to be taken care of.
It was the combination of a more Protestant and industrial US that allowed for there to be mostly one 'special' day and the ability to not have to 'go to work' (in a factory) that really solidified the week as a time period.
Nominally muslims, they would love to have a day - any day - guaranteed to be free for all of them to get together.
The minority tribe in many places wanted relief from the majority religion (then coupled with slavery/work and promoted through great works like idols and pyramids).
So they essentially said:
1. Any limited or concrete representation is not authoritative
2. Any priesthood is invalid (as taking the name of the lord in vain)
3. We get a day off
Most interesting for this discussion was that (3) was expressly extended to wives, slaves/workers, et al. (though without speaking directly to them as agents).
The liberation theology of the 1970's-80's and Islamic radicalism both created a protected space for anti-oppression, but for the most part religion and government have renewed their mutual protection racket in every corner of the world, dropping antagonistic aspects in favor of courting each other. It's unlikely either would operate as a real limitation on the other -- ironically because we are in an era when legitimacy is so contended.
PS - The IWW has long advocated for reducing work hours during workdays rather than just having the Sabbath/weekend to rest from it; see:
* 2 different sets of 10 commandments: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2896/jewish/W...
* Beatitudes https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatitudes
> And not go towards the Beatitudes
The 10 commandments and the Beatitudes are fundamentally different and serve different purposes. The 10C gives very specific things that you should and should not do - very concrete and prescriptive. The Beatitudes are very poetic and descriptive, not prescriptive.
The 10 commandments tell you what to do/not to do. The Beatitudes offer values and require interpretation to put into practice. They also are more ambiguous in their punishment/reward on the physical/spiritual level.
Compare:
"You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal."
vs
"3 Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." ... "25 Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry."
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” (Mat 5:17, KJV)
He says that before giving more commands in the sermon on the mount (the next two chapters of Matthew), much of which extend the old law/10 commandments.
This sort of hack around commandments and other holy decrees seems incredibly odd to me. Either you think it matters and obide by the spirit of it, or you don’t, in which case crack on and just say “God”, if there is an omnipotent being who cares deeply about this I doubt they’re going to be fooled by you running a quick regex on anything you publish.
I feel similarly about the various hacks used around the Jewish sabbath, as mentioned elsewhere in these comments. Great wires around entire cities are not going to make God think “ahh, got me there lads, you’ve turned Manhattan into one big living room”. And if you believe in the sanctity of the sabbath then it feels off to me to work around that by hiring a bunch of people who aren’t Jewish to work then instead.
https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/486809/jewish...
The "gotcha" IS the point. Jewish people ~~believe that god put loopholes into his rules on purpose, as an explicit reward for studying his teachings, and that finding and using those loopholes is basically an intentional part of Judaism. Remember, they are the chosen people, god gives them special treatment.
Similarly I've swapped on-call shifts with non-Christians so as to accommodate religious holidays.