Administrative and cultural adoption of weekly cycles in Illuminatia
The adoption of the structure of a multi-day unit such as the week and by extension the workweek and the weekend as a popular method for grouping days—Circadian Units (DU), and for subdividing years—Annual Units (AU)—has been a complex, non-universal cultural undertaking in Illuminatia.
To align with Lucidus guidelines for infrastructural and cultural development upon the newly-inhabited planet of Neonisi which encouraged efficiency, authorities resisted adopting any official cyclical division of time longer than the Circadian Unit but shorter than the Annual unit, and attempted to avoid cyclical occurrences that could be construed as a "week." It was understood that adopting a universal workweek and a weekend would result in bursty and intermittent utilization of resources, with recreation and labor intrinsically happening asymmetrically. Lucidus leaders and early Illuminatian officials worried that provisions of resources and availability of services would become unevenly distributed depending upon the place within such a "weekly" cycle, and that this would be detrimental to the accelerated development of a civilization in Illuminatia. Taking into account the limited population available to provide for the needs of society, early leaders posited that fluctuating resource availability and provision of labor and services would lead to inefficiencies and problems with availability of resources.
The officially-adopted units of measure, as established by the Department of Standards and Measures (DSM), conspicuously failed to implement any suggestion for how to group Circadian Units into "weekly" cycles of any sort, and neglected to provide propositions for how to divide the Annual Unit into smaller, more manageable chunks of time. Nonetheless, as a result of this vacuum of guidance, culture organically began to fill the void for what was innately perceived as an intrinsic societal need. It seemed as though humans had a deep-seated desire for a way to mark the passing of parcels of time longer than the Circadian Unit but shorter than the Annual Unit.
As it happened, the Illuminatian government, duplicating already-established Lucidus mission structures, numbered the days of the year from 0 to 215. This numbering, in natural synergy with Illuminatians' affinity for base-ten counting systems, lent itself to being divided into tens, but with an awkward vestigial remainder of six, adding up to the total of 216 DU per AU, for a structure that eventually became the administrative week. Meanwhile, it took only meager mathematical talent to ascertain that the 216-DU Annual Unit could evenly be divided into 12 or 18 segments. The division of the AU into 18 twelve-unit blocks organically evolved into the sociocultural week. Lacking official decree regarding this type of temporal division, Illuminatians began adopting both systems for diverging purposes.
Administrative week
- See article: Administrative week
As Illuminatia's continental government commence operations, governmental units began organically adopting a once-every-ten DU cycle for occurrences that took place more often than annually but less frequently than daily. Commerce adopted a similar 10-DU cycle. The 10-DU governmental and commercial cycle was favored due to the aesthetic tidiness of prominent numbers ending in zero in the base-ten system.
This became known as the administrative week. Governmental and commercial applications ignored the short week at the end of the Annual Unit and utilized this as a way to periodically boost productivity and/or provide for additional leisure time for workers. The administrative workweek, as observed, commonly utilizes a 4 DU on, 2 DU off, 2 DU on, 1 DU off cycle, though many employers utilize the 6 DU on, 4 DU off cycle instead. This keeps in mind that the typical wake-sleep cycle spans 2 DU, so one's waking day will include two workdays and one's weekend or day-off will include one wake-sleep cycle but two sunrise-sunset cycles.
Sociocultural week
- See article: Sociocultural week
Meanwhile, social and cultural occurrences favored a 12-DU cycle due to the ability for this cycle to divide into a 216-DU Annual Unit without an uneven remainder. This variety of numeric tidiness is considered much more compatible with Illuminatian sensibilities. While Illuminatia does not observe holidays, social observances and cultural practices such as those relating to thought traditions were found to be much more reliably practiced with a strictly equally-allotted "week" throughout the year.
The 12-DU cycle became known as the sociocultural week. The sociocultural week also observes a workweek and weekend day cycle, which applies primarily to arts and cultural workers, thought traditions clerics, and the public's adherence to rites and rituals. The 12-DU sociocultural week most frequently observes a 4 DU on, 2 DU off, 4 DU on, 2 DU off cycle, which easily lends itself to division equally into two 6-DU cycles.
The administrative week and the sociocultural week meet up regularly throughout the Annual Unit such that adherents to either cycle are able to relax and recreate together.
It is worth noting that while many administrative functions take place on days ending in zero, many organizations, corporations, and governmental entities stagger the workweek/weekend cycle for employees, which allows for less stress on infrastructure and provision of labor and services. This staggering is practiced with the greater societal good in mind, and has resulted in a lack of observance of such logistical problems as the rush hour or the graveyard shift.