From 9-5 to 8-5, sometimes. What would Dolly Parton say now?

A forever fan of Dolly Parton, I’ve also recently decided I’m also a fan of her work schedule. I have to wonder, did she really have to tumble out of bed and guzzle down her cup of ambition to get to work at 9? By 9 these days, some people I know have been up for four hours, worked out, showered, eaten breakfast, driven their kids to school and already have a solid hour of work in.

It was Henry Ford who is credited for figuring out that if people worked too many hours their quality of work decreased, so he set the rules for the eight-hour day, and only five days a week. And then in 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which limited the number of hours a person could work.

At some point, apparently, after Dolly’s mega hit came out in 1980, employers changed from eight hours to eight “working” hours and scheduled in an unpaid lunchbreak, pushing the punch in time to 8 a.m.. Or maybe before that. I’m solely basing this fact on a country music song.

And then along came the invention of the home computer and the ability to log in and check emails during breakfast and dinner and into the evening. For the determined or overworked employee, even 8-5 would be preferable over an endless connection to their job. These people are balanced out by another group of people, who brilliantly have figured out a way to work just a few hours a day/week and still pull in a healthy salary.

'Father works from sun to sun. Mother's work is never done'

My grandmother used to say, “Father works from sun to sun. Mother’s work is never done.” While the mother vs. father role might be different for some families, as the person who stayed home raising children, I have to agree that a mother’s work is never-ending, and I’m not talking day to day. I’m talking years and years of never clocking out.

All this to say, I wonder what Dolly would change if she wrote the same type of song in today’s world? I’m sure she would still make her way to the kitchen for coffee and claim she was just a step on the bossman’s ladder, but I can imagine a dozen other verses, including this one:

Hit snooze and check stuff on my phone so dim, Put on some sweats and head to the gym, Then shower and suck down a smoothie to stay alive.Drop the kids at school and head to workSomeone’s microwaving salmon, that jerk!And we’ll all be here working from eight to five.

What a way to make a living.

Reach Karrie McAllister at mckarrie@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: What would Dolly Parton say now? 9-5 doesn't quite work these days