While I concur that modern working ractices are at best sub-optimal and at worst utterly self-negating, I have to take issue with your statement about medieval serfs enjoying plenty of free time. The study upon which such assertions are based omitted the many essential things serfs had to do that we are free from: repairing the roof, spinning wool, making clothes, feeding & tending to the various domestic animals 365 days per year, making bread, brewing ale, making cheese, fending off vermin, and attempting periodically to de-louse. All these things took up a great deal of time and effort, and could not be omitted from daily life. Moreover, very often almost all of Sunday was lost as peasants were frequently forced to sit in cold damp churches listening to some berobed halfwit babble in Latin about sin for hours on end. When we factor in these elements, historians calculate that the average serf actually worked several hours per day more than previously claimed, bringing their working week up to around 60 hours or so depending on the time of year and the exact location & period, with the total loss of personal time reaching 66 hours when we factor in compulsory Sunday church attendance.
While I concur that modern working ractices are at best sub-optimal and at worst utterly self-negating, I have to take issue with your statement about medieval serfs enjoying plenty of free time. The study upon which such assertions are based omitted the many essential things serfs had to do that we are free from: repairing the roof, spinning wool, making clothes, feeding & tending to the various domestic animals 365 days per year, making bread, brewing ale, making cheese, fending off vermin, and attempting periodically to de-louse. All these things took up a great deal of time and effort, and could not be omitted from daily life. Moreover, very often almost all of Sunday was lost as peasants were frequently forced to sit in cold damp churches listening to some berobed halfwit babble in Latin about sin for hours on end. When we factor in these elements, historians calculate that the average serf actually worked several hours per day more than previously claimed, bringing their working week up to around 60 hours or so depending on the time of year and the exact location & period, with the total loss of personal time reaching 66 hours when we factor in compulsory Sunday church attendance.