What would a boomer say about work and burnout?
To a boomer, burnout sounds like something that happens to a clutch. Here's the Boomer on modern work, followed by the real numbers on hours and holidays.
Ask a Boomer: work and burnout Comedy, not advice
A FOUR-day week?! I worked six days at the timber yard and did the pools coupon on the seventh!
If you want a day off, earn it. Get in at half seven, eat your sandwiches at your desk and never let the foreman catch you sitting down. Long weekends are for bank holidays.
Anyway, I got a job at a bakery because I kneaded the dough! Kneaded! Get it?
At ten o'clock at night?! In my day if the boss wanted you after hours he had to drive round to your house, and my father would have set the dog on him.
Unplug the telephone at the wall like a sensible person. If it's important, he can write a memo and put it in your pigeonhole in the morning.
Anyway, why did the coffee call the police? It got mugged! One for the staff room, that.
Work from home? The only people working from home in 1983 were my mother and the Avon lady!
You need to be in the office, where the boss can see you and you can have a natter by the photocopier. Put on a tie, catch the 7:12 and stop taking meetings in your pyjama bottoms.
Anyway, how do you organise a party in space? You planet! Ho ho, planet!
The real numbers
- Full-time employees in the UK usually worked about 42.3 hours a week in 1983, compared with about 40.7 hours in 2025.
Source: OECD, Average usual weekly hours worked on the main job (from the UK Labour Force Survey) (UK, 1983 and 2025) - The Working Time Regulations gave workers in Great Britain a general legal right to paid holiday from 1 October 1998, starting at three weeks a year.
Source: legislation.gov.uk, The Working Time Regulations 1998 (Great Britain, 1998) - Today most workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday a year.
Source: GOV.UK, Holiday entitlement (2026) - An estimated 964,000 workers in Great Britain had work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2024/25.
Source: Health and Safety Executive, Work-related ill health statistics (Great Britain, 2024/25)