Who decided we should work eight hours a day?

Regardless of how you feel about the standard eight hour workday - we have Henry Ford to thank for it...

Before that, it wasn’t unusual for companies to expect workers to put in 10 to 16 hour days, six days a week. In 1914, The Ford Motor Company not only cut the standard word day to eight hours, but also doubled their worker’s pay. While competing industries thought Ford was nuts, the result doubled profit margins within two years, setting new standards for the average working Joes. 

While eight hours is still the norm, the modern worker is actually working much less. Thanks to today’s distractions and multitasking, the average time spent on real work per week is only about 24 of the 40 hours.