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Labor and Social Change
Kellogg's Six-Hour Day
Very Good to like-new paperback
- GenresNonfictionHistory
261 pages, Paperback
First published October 29, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 23, 2012
At the outset of this review, I must admit that I did not read this book cover to cover. Parts of it were boring, ideological, and repetitive. But other parts were interesting and informative, and that's why I stuck with it.
Here's the jist of it: during the Depression, Kellogg's founder, W.K. Kellogg, came up with a unique solution to the unemployment problem. His factory was a 24-hour operation, so in order to put more people to work, he changed over from three 8-hour shifts to four 6-hour shifts. The 6-hour workers were given a per hour raise so that they shouldn't feel bad about the loss of income; after all, they did earn more under the 8-hour scheme. But as it turned out, the workers loved the 6-hour shift, especially the women. In an era of mass unemployment when leisure was what people had an abundance of, people learned to value it and spend it well. Families and communities were strengthened, and so was people's morale while on the job. It was all part of W.K. Kellogg's vision. (The author calls it "liberation capitalism." I told you the book was ideological.)
But after W.K. Kellogg retired and the unions came in, the 6-hour day was under attack from both sides, i.e. unions and management. Some of labor sided with the unions; others didn't. The 6-hour day was eventually done away with, but it took 50 years because of those hold-outs. They even staged a mock funeral for it at the end, which I thought was pretty funny.
The author got all this information from interviews he conducted with the 6-hour workers. To me, the most interesting parts were the direct quotes from the interviews. I'd have liked to see more of them and less of the author's interpretations. But there's one chapter that really spoke to me even though it was mostly in the author's voice, and that was Chapter 6, "Human Relations Management: Reaffirming Work as Life's Center." It sums up a worldview all Americans born after 1950 have been raised with: work is the centerpoint of our lives, the place where we find meaning and show what we can accomplish. The author's point of view is that our leisure time is where we ought to show our true selves. It's a little more complicated than that, but I was surprised at how much more I identified with the work-centered view. Then again, I was raised post-human relations management. Besides, thanks to technology, we have more leisure than the folks of the 1930's anyway. Most of the women used their leisure time on housework. The descriptions of canning fruit reminded me of a saying I've heard: "A good balabusta is half a parnossa," ie "A good housekeeper is half a family's livelihood."
I think some of my more conservative friends would have far stronger negative reactions to this book and its ideology than I had, but even still, questioning our "work-is-all" attitude these days isn't a bad thing. Certainly questioning the way we make use of our leisure is a wise idea. So even if I left the book not entirely agreeing with the author, I definitely came away with respect for W.K. Kellogg - a humanitarian and visionary employer. Interestingly, he was a Seventh Day Adventist. Perhaps his ideology about leisure time was influenced by the Jewish concept of the Sabbath. In any case, may Hashem send the world more humanitarian businessmen and employers like him.
Here's the jist of it: during the Depression, Kellogg's founder, W.K. Kellogg, came up with a unique solution to the unemployment problem. His factory was a 24-hour operation, so in order to put more people to work, he changed over from three 8-hour shifts to four 6-hour shifts. The 6-hour workers were given a per hour raise so that they shouldn't feel bad about the loss of income; after all, they did earn more under the 8-hour scheme. But as it turned out, the workers loved the 6-hour shift, especially the women. In an era of mass unemployment when leisure was what people had an abundance of, people learned to value it and spend it well. Families and communities were strengthened, and so was people's morale while on the job. It was all part of W.K. Kellogg's vision. (The author calls it "liberation capitalism." I told you the book was ideological.)
But after W.K. Kellogg retired and the unions came in, the 6-hour day was under attack from both sides, i.e. unions and management. Some of labor sided with the unions; others didn't. The 6-hour day was eventually done away with, but it took 50 years because of those hold-outs. They even staged a mock funeral for it at the end, which I thought was pretty funny.
The author got all this information from interviews he conducted with the 6-hour workers. To me, the most interesting parts were the direct quotes from the interviews. I'd have liked to see more of them and less of the author's interpretations. But there's one chapter that really spoke to me even though it was mostly in the author's voice, and that was Chapter 6, "Human Relations Management: Reaffirming Work as Life's Center." It sums up a worldview all Americans born after 1950 have been raised with: work is the centerpoint of our lives, the place where we find meaning and show what we can accomplish. The author's point of view is that our leisure time is where we ought to show our true selves. It's a little more complicated than that, but I was surprised at how much more I identified with the work-centered view. Then again, I was raised post-human relations management. Besides, thanks to technology, we have more leisure than the folks of the 1930's anyway. Most of the women used their leisure time on housework. The descriptions of canning fruit reminded me of a saying I've heard: "A good balabusta is half a parnossa," ie "A good housekeeper is half a family's livelihood."
I think some of my more conservative friends would have far stronger negative reactions to this book and its ideology than I had, but even still, questioning our "work-is-all" attitude these days isn't a bad thing. Certainly questioning the way we make use of our leisure is a wise idea. So even if I left the book not entirely agreeing with the author, I definitely came away with respect for W.K. Kellogg - a humanitarian and visionary employer. Interestingly, he was a Seventh Day Adventist. Perhaps his ideology about leisure time was influenced by the Jewish concept of the Sabbath. In any case, may Hashem send the world more humanitarian businessmen and employers like him.
February 12, 2018
Beyond utility, beyond the marketplace. Even a mere two hours a day is revolutionary. It’s 1931 and the Kellogg's cereal company has cut two hours from shifts at a Detroit factory complex, introducing a four-shift day and more leisure. Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt’s study looks at this cultural phenomenon using interviews with workers and labor history pre-Depression to the 70s and 80s. There are also modern interviews with the workers. BKH is a professor of leisure, so the books serves as longform meditation on the question: Why is 9-to-5 still the standard?
BKH presents a lot of answers. Worker attitudes, the shift to Human Relations, and, today’s most apparent, leisure consumerism are a few. Many workers simply didn’t want the shift. They needed money, overtime, and didn’t know what to do with themselves. Less work means more free time and several workers couldn’t decide what to do with themselves— they NEEDED to work. Though BKH balances his findings, there are funny reactions to his questions for members of the Greatest Generation who worked at Kellogg’s. They question his sanity, ask “Can’t you find something worthwhile to waste your time with?” and “...You should do research about something else— you say you study leisure? Does your college pay you to do this? (146). A true idler indeed!
Both pro-leisure and pro-work, which aren’t necessarily distinct camps, sling mud. Loafers railed against “work-hogs,” one reacts to a modern TV commercial for a national investment firm as “Horseshit...They do less real work than anybody and shout the loudest about it.” But, that said, pro-workers do a lot more idlebashing. The culture at Kellogg’s comes to feminize idling, pulling the sexist card to guilt male workers into voting a return to 8 hours. A shift in company culture rebrands leisure as frivolous and as an existential nightmare which several of the workers were struggling with. Is doing nothing too hard or have we just learned work as a habit? Furthermore, a return to 8 means the closing of the fourth shift, meaning layoffs, and a shift towards overtime— “‘Now management is thinking of quantity’ — instead of people and their need to work’” reports one interviewee (162).
These sentiments were manufactured from the top down. The shift from Scientific Management to Human Relations during the 1950s paves the way: managers ask how can we humanize work? They begin reframing it as pious, essential, and a fulfilling purposeful act. I find this rather sinister, and think the book does too. It finds leisure capitalism the same. Lets use money to take the ‘drudgery’ out of free time. Good god. And if we can pay to make our leisure more easy to sit with, then we are shifting the idea of leisure from a pure, home-and-community centered culture to a culture of consumption. This EP Thompson quote opens the Reaffirming Work as Life’s Center chapter: ‘In a mature Capitalist society all time must be consumed, marketed, put to use; it is offensive for the labor force merely to “pass the time”.’
Pro-leisure workers noticed. At a company ballgame during the six-hour era: “You had characters in the stands, yelling and telling stories. Kids would be all over playing. I could tell you stories from now till dark. But now it’s all professional and impersonal and just for the money, nobody has time for local sports— all that money has ruined things (174).” Or the woman who teaches her hobby, birding: “That is what I try to teach—doing it for the love of it— you know that’s what amateur means, don’t you? (176).” It seems they take a greater interest in learned things, some even pursuing an education with their idle time. Interviewee Velma Plumb asks whether BKH has ever heard of Arnold Toynbee, a British social thinker, to which he says no, and she responds “Anyone going to college should have heart of Arnold Toynbee… I recall reading…‘We will either share the work or take care of people who don’t have work’” (163).
“Those who still doubt that work is life’s center are considered heremetics, and time outside work and consumption, without “entertainment” and life’s new toys, is a new wilderness (12).” Sadly, the shorter hours movement at Kellogg’s is done, but not dead— dormant. As the 8-hour day rears its head in other ways, such as a glut of self-improvement dogmas, environmental effects, or the hollowness of consumer-leisure’s blatantly false front, a movement that posits the idea that time spent with oneself on private pursuits is positive is well worth a look. Here’s to the mavericks. Here’s to the wild hermits.
BKH presents a lot of answers. Worker attitudes, the shift to Human Relations, and, today’s most apparent, leisure consumerism are a few. Many workers simply didn’t want the shift. They needed money, overtime, and didn’t know what to do with themselves. Less work means more free time and several workers couldn’t decide what to do with themselves— they NEEDED to work. Though BKH balances his findings, there are funny reactions to his questions for members of the Greatest Generation who worked at Kellogg’s. They question his sanity, ask “Can’t you find something worthwhile to waste your time with?” and “...You should do research about something else— you say you study leisure? Does your college pay you to do this? (146). A true idler indeed!
Both pro-leisure and pro-work, which aren’t necessarily distinct camps, sling mud. Loafers railed against “work-hogs,” one reacts to a modern TV commercial for a national investment firm as “Horseshit...They do less real work than anybody and shout the loudest about it.” But, that said, pro-workers do a lot more idlebashing. The culture at Kellogg’s comes to feminize idling, pulling the sexist card to guilt male workers into voting a return to 8 hours. A shift in company culture rebrands leisure as frivolous and as an existential nightmare which several of the workers were struggling with. Is doing nothing too hard or have we just learned work as a habit? Furthermore, a return to 8 means the closing of the fourth shift, meaning layoffs, and a shift towards overtime— “‘Now management is thinking of quantity’ — instead of people and their need to work’” reports one interviewee (162).
These sentiments were manufactured from the top down. The shift from Scientific Management to Human Relations during the 1950s paves the way: managers ask how can we humanize work? They begin reframing it as pious, essential, and a fulfilling purposeful act. I find this rather sinister, and think the book does too. It finds leisure capitalism the same. Lets use money to take the ‘drudgery’ out of free time. Good god. And if we can pay to make our leisure more easy to sit with, then we are shifting the idea of leisure from a pure, home-and-community centered culture to a culture of consumption. This EP Thompson quote opens the Reaffirming Work as Life’s Center chapter: ‘In a mature Capitalist society all time must be consumed, marketed, put to use; it is offensive for the labor force merely to “pass the time”.’
Pro-leisure workers noticed. At a company ballgame during the six-hour era: “You had characters in the stands, yelling and telling stories. Kids would be all over playing. I could tell you stories from now till dark. But now it’s all professional and impersonal and just for the money, nobody has time for local sports— all that money has ruined things (174).” Or the woman who teaches her hobby, birding: “That is what I try to teach—doing it for the love of it— you know that’s what amateur means, don’t you? (176).” It seems they take a greater interest in learned things, some even pursuing an education with their idle time. Interviewee Velma Plumb asks whether BKH has ever heard of Arnold Toynbee, a British social thinker, to which he says no, and she responds “Anyone going to college should have heart of Arnold Toynbee… I recall reading…‘We will either share the work or take care of people who don’t have work’” (163).
“Those who still doubt that work is life’s center are considered heremetics, and time outside work and consumption, without “entertainment” and life’s new toys, is a new wilderness (12).” Sadly, the shorter hours movement at Kellogg’s is done, but not dead— dormant. As the 8-hour day rears its head in other ways, such as a glut of self-improvement dogmas, environmental effects, or the hollowness of consumer-leisure’s blatantly false front, a movement that posits the idea that time spent with oneself on private pursuits is positive is well worth a look. Here’s to the mavericks. Here’s to the wild hermits.
September 14, 2018
I had been looking forward to reading this for a while and finally managed to get a copy through my library. Unfortunately, I was disappointed that the author completely ignored discussing benefits from the company point of view in terms of productivity. There are only two brief mentions of increased productivity in the whole book. I would have thought that would have been a key point of the book and was sorely disappointed to not get further insights into that.
Instead, most of the book is taken up with the politics around the 6 hour day which is somewhat interesting but I feel the author missed a great opportunity to present his findings in a possibly mutually beneficial manner rather than just focusing solely on the workers who worked the 6 hour shifts.
Instead, most of the book is taken up with the politics around the 6 hour day which is somewhat interesting but I feel the author missed a great opportunity to present his findings in a possibly mutually beneficial manner rather than just focusing solely on the workers who worked the 6 hour shifts.
July 8, 2023
Very interesting research and to understand the effects that an six hour work day had, years ago and what informed the transition back to the 8 hour day.
In relation to our current world where AI and automation also foster a more productive environment, comparable to when better machines allowed for a higher productivity at Kellogg’s. Interesting to think about what we will learn from this story and research and if history will be repeated or if we as society choose to give people more leisure time when the productivity increases.
In relation to our current world where AI and automation also foster a more productive environment, comparable to when better machines allowed for a higher productivity at Kellogg’s. Interesting to think about what we will learn from this story and research and if history will be repeated or if we as society choose to give people more leisure time when the productivity increases.
July 23, 2013
Now re-reading. The goal should be residual income from home biz, aka franchising. Machines were meant to do more of our work and we have more family time. Workers need to really get together and fix this dilemma.
July 15, 2010
Really intelligent and informative alt-history of labour rights and working hours in the US. Highly Highly recommended!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews