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Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

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Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#21

Post by cdoxsey »

> what our society would need to look like for the Sabbath to be possible.

Keeping sabbath is possible, though sometimes difficult.

Coming from a fairly conservative presbyterian background, the hardest part for me was on-call responsibilities. There are exemptions for emergencies (for doctors, police, fire fighters, etc), but in some software jobs "emergencies" happen nearly every day and it didn't seem like that was adhering to the spirit of the rule.

But outside of that it just means you need to be better about planning to make sure you get work done on Saturday, or early Monday morning.

Once you get in the habit of disconnecting its totally worth it though.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#22

Post by howard941 »

dghughes wrote: post #8

The result will be the same whether it's called sabbath or "the right to disconnect". Wages have stagnated and organizations are trying to squeeze more work out of each worker. All that while simultaneously reducing the organization's full-time staff or just cut the total amount of employees. At some point people will snap or breakdown from working two 12 hour shift jobs each day. I'm joking obviously but it seems li…

Agreed. And job insecurity is still a thing so even those who aren't overtly required to do so put in more than the expected amount to help reduce the likelihood they'll be in the discard pile the next time cost cutting measures come around.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#24

Post by ghaff »

As a student in Cambridge MA in the late 70s, very few stores were open on a Sunday. I often played rugby matches on Saturday and I remember having to often find a few hours in the afternoon free of classes when I could do various shopping.

Just an anecdote but you don't have to go back to the truly distant past to find the vast majority of stores closed on Sunday.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#25

Post by noja »

TulliusCicero wrote: post #18

Kind of have this in Germany, where many businesses are prohibited from being open on Sunday. For example, grocery stores can't be open unless they're at a central train station or airport. In practice, to me it just feels really annoying and limiting. Means I basically have to plan any larger shopping trips for Saturday, even if that doesn't work well for my schedule. I get that they want to make sure workers have e…

Are you German?

If not, what do the Germans think of this?

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#26

Post by specto »

cdoxsey wrote: post #21

> what our society would need to look like for the Sabbath to be possible. Keeping sabbath is possible, though sometimes difficult. Coming from a fairly conservative presbyterian background, the hardest part for me was on-call responsibilities. There are exemptions for emergencies (for doctors, police, fire fighters, etc), but in some software jobs "emergencies" happen nearly every day and it didn't seem like that wa…

Sounds very adventist ;)

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#27

Post by snapit »

rgbrenner wrote: post #6

a pharaonic economy driven by anxiety begets violence, dishonesty, jealousy, theft, the commodification of sex and familial alienation. None of these had a place in the Torahic economy, which was driven not by anxiety but by wholeness, enoughness. In such a society, there was no need to murder, covet, lie, commit adultery or dishonour one’s parents. Lol. All of that existed in the torahic economy. It never ceases to…

I don't believe this author is advocating forcing religion. He is simply saying that there is less freedom in the current system which effectively forces/expects over work and extended hours. This is an attempt to pull the pendulum back a bit.. which we can all agree is helpful.

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#28

Post by DanAndersen »

cdoxsey wrote: post #21

> what our society would need to look like for the Sabbath to be possible. Keeping sabbath is possible, though sometimes difficult. Coming from a fairly conservative presbyterian background, the hardest part for me was on-call responsibilities. There are exemptions for emergencies (for doctors, police, fire fighters, etc), but in some software jobs "emergencies" happen nearly every day and it didn't seem like that wa…

I grew up LDS and remember a church youth speaker saying something like "It's OK to pull the ox out of the mire on Sunday as long as you didn't push him in on Saturday." :)

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#29

Post by macintux »

I think forcing people to be prepared for a day each week without any services (grocery, gas stations) would lead to better emergency preparedness in general. And better planning. (I still remember when people needed to withdraw cash during bank hours and thus had to plan ahead.)

I'd also be curious what the Sabbath would be. Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday? Saturday only? I believe the Christian conflation of church day with the Sabbath is a misapprehension of scripture, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Let’s bring back the Sabbath as an act against ‘total work’

#30

Post by TulliusCicero »

noja wrote: post #25
TulliusCicero wrote: post #18

Kind of have this in Germany, where many businesses are prohibited from being open on Sunday. For example, grocery stores can't be open unless they're at a central train station or airport. In practice, to me it just feels really annoying and limiting. Means I basically have to plan any larger shopping trips for Saturday, even if that doesn't work well for my schedule. I get that they want to make sure workers have e…

Are you German? If not, what do the Germans think of this?

Nope, just moved here a couple years ago from the states.

Most people I know here seem to think it's annoying, but I work at Google, so we got people from all over, I don't think Germans are even a majority of the devs.

edit: apparently 61% of Germans think stores should be able to decide themselves whether to open on Sundays: http://m.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/service/einzelhandel-mehrheit...

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