DID YOU KNOW?
24-hour time is used in aviation, military, meteorology, logistics, and other fields. The 12-hour clock is only used in 18 countries globally, including the United States and Canada. 24-hour time and military time are very similar! See our military time converter for more information.
5:00 PM in Western Culture
Congratulations, you’re officially off the clock. 5 PM in western cultures is the universal signal to end the work day. This is notoriously referred to as the 9-5 as part of a 40-hour work week. The 9-5 started back in the late 1800s as a result of the labor rights movement. Before then, factory workers averaged over 100 hours per week.
Today, the idea of the 9am to 5pm work week in western culture has morphed, theoretically and quite literally.
The shift from industrial work into service- and tech-based companies brought a new wave of thinking between what work and life mean. Before, work was a time to “punch-in and punch-out”, leaving the factory at 5:00pm on the dot to feed your family. This continued into the corporate boom, clocking into the office at 9:00am and once again leaving at 5:00pm. Today, the rise of technology and the new idea of work being part of a healthy work-life balance has completely shifted how we see 5pm.
Yes, work may still end at five for some, but in western culture, the 9-5 is changing.
According to Forbes, “The change in 9-to-5 will eventually happen, one way or another. The Gen-Z and Millennial generations watched their parents burn out. They saw them laid off, passed over for promotions and leading lives of quiet desperation. They don’t want this for themselves.”
