Who knows, perhaps it happens because I am conscious of Monday mornings. When all employees are back in their offices, they will start mailing and calling. As a result, my mailbox will get stuffed with tons of unnecessary correspondence. 

Perhaps it’s because I know that working on the weekend — when no one expects you to do so anyway — is way more peaceful and relaxing than working on the working days, when you are expected to stay on the phone. In other words, it is all about other people’s expectations.

Or perhaps it’s because decades of education and regular weekly work condition us to naturally fear Mondays. Even so, this happens even if we enjoy our jobs. Every coming Monday puts us in a state of alert and vigilance as if our bodies were preparing for a fight.  

Where Did the 40-Hour Workweek Come From?

Who came up with the idea of organizing a workweek into five daily blocks in the first place? The worldwide trend to normalize labor to an eight-hour working day kicked off in 1866. Notably, that year, the National Labor Union formed to protect the interests of labor in the US. 

It was the peak of the industrial revolution. Factory owners exploited millions of workers, who worked in inhuman conditions.

On August 20, 1866, the Union asked Congress to pass a law mandating the eight-hour workday. Congress rejected the law, but it still inspired Americans to pay more attention to labor rights.

Notably, Illinois was the first American state to formally adopt the eight-hour workday. Despite massive protests among the employers, Congress passed the law mandating the eight-hour workday on May 1, 1867.

History remembers this day as “May Day.” Consequently, it inspired Americans around the country to organize massive protests on behalf of an eight-hour working day every May for another twenty years.

On May 19, 1869, President Ulysses S. Grant issued a proclamation that guaranteed an eight-hour workday to all civil servants in the US and encouraged private companies to introduce the same working scheme. 

By 1890, however, this had shifted. The American government researched workers’ hours. It turned out that the average workweek for full-time manufacturing employees was over 100 hours (!).

How Did 20th-Century Labor Laws Change Things?

On September 3, 1916, Congress passed the Adamson Act, a federal law that established an eight-hour workday for interstate railroad workers — engineers, firemen, brakemen, and conductors — and additional pay for overtime work.

On June 25, 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which limited the workweek to 44 hours, nationwide. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the 40-hour week set by that 1940 amendment has not changed since.

Two years later, on June 26, 1940, Congress amended the Fair Labor Standards Act to the final 40 hours. Nothing changed ever since, which means that the 40-hour workweek is a remnant of the Industrial Revolution.

Today, officially, a 40-hour workweek is still in place. However, the corona crisis and the Great Resignation that came with it changed things.

As a result, many employers now offer a 4-day workweek to attract and retain talent. According to Fan, Schor and colleagues (2025), a six-month 4-day-week trial across 141 companies reduced burnout and improved well-being.

At the same time, in many working cultures such as the consultancy industry, employees take pride in overworking. In fact, many work over 40 hours a week. 

How Does the Workweek Vary Around the World?

The attitude to work also differs from one region of the work to another. The American view of work-life balance is very different from Europeans.

While Europeans tend to glorify the work-life balance, play it cool, and pretend they work less than they do, Americans tend to glorify hard work and pretend to work more than in reality. According to the OECD, Germans work around 1,340 hours a year, Americans closer to 1,800.

But, how much should we work in fact?

On Natural Working Patterns and Homeostasis: How Do You Deal With a Phantom Boss?

To my mind, any fixed workweek is suboptimal. Of course, there are facilities such as hospitals where you can’t just give employees full freedom in terms of working hours. But in the vast majority of jobs, a certain degree of freedom should be the norm.

Similar to individual sleeping patterns, people have individual working patterns that keep their bodies in homeostasis. 

For instance, for some people, it is 8 hours of work, 8 hours of rest, and 8 hours of sleep 5 days a week. 

For some people, it is 12 hours of work, 4 hours of rest, and 8 hours of sleep 6 days a week. 

For some people, it is 16 hours of work, 3 hours of rest, and 5 hours of sleep 7 days a week. 

And for some people, it is 4 hours of work, 8 hours of rest, and 12 hours of sleep 4 days a week. 

Overall, there are no “right” or “wrong” rhythms, similar as you cannot say that being a morning lark or a night owl is right or wrong. 

This is also why I am a fan of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). Indeed, in a DAO, everyone has equal status and an equal contribution to decision-making.

According to a peer-reviewed definition published in Internet Policy Review, DAOs are meant to be self-governed and independent from central control, relying on peer-to-peer and democratic decision-making rather than a traditional management hierarchy. Everyone assigns their own tasks, earns pay either per hour or per task, and works according to their personal schedule — in harmony with their own homeostasis. 

The Phantom Boss Network.

After my little hike toward Hunter’s Point, I started talking to my entrepreneurial friends about the phantom boss problem. It soon turned out that most of them experienced similar problems to a certain degree. 

This is why I decided to start gatherings on Mondays, dedicated to entrepreneurs and freelancers. The purpose is simple: to work hand in hand and get to know more people. Overall, we chat, party, and start our Mondays on a good note.

I believe Mondays don’t need to be scary if you feel supported and you have the right people around you.

The first meeting of the Phantom Boss Network will kick off here in the Valley, and the next ones — back in the Netherlands. Let’s see where it takes us.