The last hour

[Sue M-V]

A student just asked me a facinating question that I can't answer. I said I'd ask you all because I don't know how else to find out.

He wants a phrase or idiom that covers the situation at work when it's about an hour before home time on a Friday afternoon and the workers start to relax and work less as the thought of the weekend replaces their thoughts of hard work.

It's like the opposite of "the eleventh hour".

Is there such an idiom or useful phrase that he can use to refer to this situation? I recognised it immediately from my experience of school teaching on a Friday afternoon! I know just what he means but can't think of anything useful. Help!

Sue

[Dave M]

It normally applies more to the feeling as a bigger holiday (or retirement) approaches, rather than just the weekend, but there's "demob happy": He made mistakes, because he was getting demob happy.

(From "demobilisation", the act of being released from military service. Also gave "demob suit", the usually-regretted civilian suit given to replace the uniform, as the person left.)

[Barry]

Sue,

I think Dave has come up with the best purpose-built idiom, but I suspect that all that might be needed would be to say 'it's Friday afternoon'. Everyone who works Monday-Friday 9-5 knows exactly what this means! We used to use an acronym for Friday, and refer to it as POETS day (apostrophe position optional, but needed somewhere!): Push Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday (you can replace the 'Push' with something more profane if you prefer!)

If you have any Jewish friends, they might be able to provide something in Yiddish that has an extra twist - as you know, Saturday is Shabbat, and it technically begins at sunset (well, the appearance of stars) on the evening before. On Shabbat, no devout Jew is supposed to work, and many Jewish businesses close early on Friday afternoons in winter - there may be a pithy Yiddish saying for this phenomenon, which sort of equates ...

There is also the related phenomenon of 'dress-down Friday'; this started in the USA, and meant that employees could wear 'play clothes' on Fridays in acknowledgement of the approaching weekend.

Hope all this adds to the mix.

[Barry]

I should also add that, while the phenomenon of the wind-down on Friday afternoon is well known, my working experience generally showed it to be disappearing.

Friday lunchtime was always typically a 'weekend-starts-here-let's-go-to-the-pub' type occasion when I first started work, but it has become rarer, I think, as fewer people drink, and the middle classes have begun to reserve their drinking for at home or over dinner, so people are less drowsy on Friday afternoons.

I also noticed (particularly with the arrival of technology allowing more instant communication) that Friday afternoons actually became busier - a sort of 'get it off my desk before the weekend' attitude. This phenomenon combined with a general decrease in planning capability ensured that the period before any holiday (be it the weekend, Easter, or Christmas) meant that I was usually rushed off my feet before leaving the office. I always wanted to lobby those people who made wall-planner calendars to remove the period between 23 December and 3 January - so that we were all aware that the distance between 13 December and 13 January was nearer to two weeks than four!

[Glyn]

Gladys Friday Hour?

[Verbivore]

Glyn! Good to have you here!

[Sue M-V]

Lovely to see you, Glyn!

You'll have to explain about Gladys, though. I've never heard this phrase before - don't forget I've been an ex-pat for a very long time!

Thanks to Barry and Dave M, too, but I'm referring only to a sort of last-hour-on-a Friday syndrome. The student asked whether he could refer to "the seventh hour" by analogy with "the eleventh hour" but I didn't think it was a common expression and feared people might misunderstand.

I know about being demobbed, since my dear old Dad once was. It doesn't quite cover what I mean. Unfortunately I don't know any Jewish people. I don't think that there are any up here, actually ... Laestadians, yes, and a spattering of Moslems, but no Catholics and no Jews.

Sue

[Bertie]

Happy Hour ?

[Dave M]

Hi Bertie

I think "Happy Hour" has quite a different, standard, meaning: that part of the early evening, in a bar, when you get two drinks for the price of one (or a double for the price of a single).

Having a happy hour at work, late on Friday, seems a step beyond just letting your mind wander!

[Gabriel-Ernest]

I could find nothing to suggest that there is a Hebrew or Yiddish word which refers specifically to the hour before sunset (or star shine). However, one could make up a word/phrase such as the simcha time (simcha meaning a great pleasure or happy occasion; i.e. coming up to the week-end), or shlep hour (because it drags so slowly).
Or, if we distort the definition somewhat, the penultimate hour (shortened to pen-hour); the ultimate being the freedom of the week-end. Don’t know if any of that helps.

I was somewhat bemused when the concept of ‘dressing down day’ on Fridays was introduced at my office. After appearing in a dressing gown the first time and claiming I had misheard, my concession was to undo my collar button. Wearing a suit to work was so much easier than having to decide what to wear of a morning – how do women cope? Management were not overly impressed when I suggested that along with ‘dressing down’ we might be allowed to bring our own games into work.

G-E.

[Alan Palmer]

There's a chain of restaurants/bars called "TGI Friday's" [sic] that started in New York, apparently. "TGI", of course, stands for "Thank God It's". Perhaps some variation of this phrase could be used?

[Glyn]

Sue
Glad it's Friday hour!
Gladys Friday is a very popular girl. I thought everyone knew her.
My thanks for your welcome (and Gordon's), but you won't "see" me - or any symbolic representation of me - until I get the hang of the technicalities.

[Sue M-V]

Some lovely ideas, Gabriel-Ernest. My student was looking, however, for some standard English phrase. I don't think his technology teacher will be up for neologisms. I know from personal experience that if one tries to be clever in that department one is invariably corrected.

I'm not sure of the origin of the phrase "thank God it's Friday", but I remember someone saying it on the radio aeons ago. Now you can get it printed on T-shirts, and see it all over the place.

I think I'll tell the student that there doesn't seem to be a standard phrase, but that we can make up some suitable ones for him to choose from!

Sue

[Deleted]

Good morning,
Construction crews are infamous for this particular condition.
"the situation at work when it's about an hour before home time on a Friday afternoon and the workers start to relax and work less as the thought of the weekend replaces their thoughts of hard work"
It's simply called, Beer Thirty.
This term is used, and appropriate for any time after the lunch break but generaly begins to be heard around the last hour of the work day.

[Dr Mildr]

As I read this from the beginning I was beginning to wonder why it didn't seem familiar. Fortunately Barry seems to have the same experience as me (with respect to being very busy on Friday afternoon!). I'm not sure that the rise in technology and instant communication is necessarily to blame; I recall being very busy many, many years ago when I worked in a hospital lab. The doctors all wanted tests done before the weekend, and we couldn't leave until the bench was clear. While it might be OK to leave some data analysis or marking till Monday, it's more difficult to ignore patient's samples with the knowledge that if the test isn't done the patient may not be able to go home, or might not have sufficient cross-matched blood or whatever. And as all that was before Pontius was a pilot it seems a little unreasonable to blame t'interweb and the likes.