We think that most people will agree that workdays can feel like they drag on forever, especially when we’re not properly caffeinated, are not feeling 100%, or have home issues weighing on our minds. We then end up dragging through our day, feverishly wishing that 5 pm will hurry up and arrive.

Then we get hit by the “2 pm slump,” and we end up thinking about nothing but what we’re going to do once we get home. This is a feeling that all of us have had at one point or another, if we don’t experience it every single workday. Fortunately, someone has come up with a holiday that will help us out, at least one day out of the year anyway.

This holiday is called 4 pm Finish Day, and it’s observed on the third Friday of September. It’s a day that encourages us to get our work done by 4 pm so that we can start our weekend earlier. And it’s a day that we think we’re going to celebrate!

The History Of 4 PM Finish Day

Believe it or not, this holiday was created by Red Bull. They originally created the holiday on September 14th, 2018, to encourage people to be as productive as they can on this day so they can start their weekend earlier.

We suppose that Red Bull, the drink that gives you wings, is probably the drink they would suggest to workers to help finish their work. Regardless, this holiday started out as a marketing campaign and has now blossomed into a holiday that people all over the world are more than willing to observe.

Since Red Bull created this holiday, we thought it would be appropriate to go over the history of this brand before we move on with our discussion of this holiday. Red Bull was invented and is currently owned by Austrian Red Bull GmbH. It’s based on a drink that was introduced by Chaleo Yoovidhya in Thailand in 1976.

This drink was called Krating Daeng, which means “Red Gaur” in English. It was heavily consumed by workers and truck drivers in Thailand. In 1982, Dietrich Mateschitz traveled to Thailand while working for the German manufacturer Blendax.

He met the owner of T.C. Pharmaceutical, the previously mentioned Yoovidhya, and discovered that Krating Daeng helped him get over his jet lag. Two years later, Mateschitz co-founded Red Bull GmbH with Yoovidhya and turned the locally available drink into an international brand. Its blend of caffeine, B vitamins, simple sugars, and taurine has been effective in helping workers around the world beat that dreaded 2 pm slump.

Observing 4 PM Finish Day

This day is easy enough to observe. All a person has to do is finish their work and leave work by 4 pm. Easy enough, unless the person’s boss is uncooperative. While everyone is clocking out early, they can use the hashtag #4PMFinishDay to encourage other workers to clock out as well.