Shortweek

Today, in my daily routine of surfing the latest news and information on the Internet, I ran across an article about a subject that I’ve been a HUGE promoter of for many, many years. The article reported that the state of Utah is going to move their state employee base to a 4 day workweek. The results of this change will create 4 workdays of 10 hours per day with Friday off. As the article continued, they stated that not everyone will receive this new schedule, but about 70% will. Utah stated the reasoning for the change was to try and conserve energy and save gas on employees commuting 5 days per week rather than 4. A great side effect is the additional day off for their employees. However, there are negative impacts that the article pays attention to. Parents must alter their daycare schedules, they may have issues making appointments now that their days are longer, and mass transit schedules will have to be altered to accommodate different work schedules.

Getting away from just reporting what the article had to say, I’m going to tell you why I’ve been such a supporter of this schedule for many years. How many of you out there right now are on a 4 day work week? I know my parents are fortunate enough to be on a 4 day week with their day off being Monday. I’m pretty sure they can comment on here and state that of course there are cons to working longer days, but the pros and extra day off are more than enough to offset any potential hardship. So, hopefully they will stop by here and offer their insights into the real life 4 day work week. Personally, I think the benefits far outweigh the additional costs of moving to the new “shortweek.” Let’s take a look at some of the benefits and costs.

Primarily, the number one human benefit of moving employees to a 4 day workweek is giving them an extra day off. Everyone knows how precious time has become these days and the addition of a free day is priceless. Most people just assume that Friday will be the day given off but that’s not always the case. The business can create an acceptable work schedule to remain open exactly the same as they are now and rotate their employees through different 4 day workweek, 3 days off schedules. Sure, businesses and mangers will have to rearrange their schedules and come up with something that suits everyone involved, but it’s not a roadblock that can’t easily be overcome. The idea is to give everyone a continuous 3 day off block. Actually, where I used to work, my department and I submitted a work schedule along with the pros and cons of the 4 day work week to management about 5 years ago. We described how we would cover our necessary duties appropriately and still allow for our department to run at maximum capacity. Of course, it didn’t see the light of day because such an idea was against the grain of conventional business and management. Employee satisfaction and morale usually isn’t the number one thing on management’s minds these days. That’s an entirely different subject that I will touch upon one of these days.

Another prime benefit of the shortweek is that depending on the particular job, an extra 2 hours added to the day can increase production. The stop and go nature of some 8 hour jobs distract and disrupt the work flow. Throw in a couple of breaks and you have but a few continuous blocks of actual work being accomplished. With an additional 2 hours added to each workday, you can extend the continuity of work and potentially experience valuable work production and quality. Sure, there can be an opposite reaction to the extra 2 hours and people can experience a decrease in work production and quality. That is for the managers to determine and adjust as necessary. However, longer periods of time focused on job tasks lead to more work being accomplished and completed. I’m sure you have read the reports of how little time people are actually working at their jobs these days with all of the distractions in our daily work lives. This could in fact, help increase the amount of quality work due to economies of scale.

Those are 2 pretty good pros for moving towards a 4 day workweek. What kind of cons are there? The first con that I can think of is that people will have to get up earlier and stay later at their job. Are these hours the prime hours for quality work? Would it be better to tack the 2 hours on in the afternoon? No, that won’t work for most. What about adding them to the morning? Still, probably not. The easiest method to add in the 4 day week is to tack 1 extra hour on in the morning and 1 in the afternoon making an 8 to 5 job a 7 to 6 job. Depending on the commute, you are looking at about 12 or more hours each day dedicated to work which doesn’t leave much time for family and wind down at home. Is the 4 day week cutting our 4 work days too thin? Possibly, but it depends on the person’s situation. Sometimes, the additional 2 work hours may in fact be worthless hours depending on the employee. Managers must determine how to get the highest quality and most production out of their employees. The 4 day week will potentially stretch the employees to their limit and decrease quality and production if the appropriate employees are not in place.

A second con to the 4 day week is the potential closing of businesses on the off day. Some businesses may in fact choose to only open for 4 days of the week easing their schedule and business practices. This can hurt society in the fact that businesses people could use their extra time off to go to are now closed. During the week, they don’t have enough time to do everything since so much of their day is devoted to work. They may find a hard time satisfying appointments and many other tasks of daily life outside of their home. However, I believe this con can be easily remedied. Many businesses have worked with odd shifts and employee hours. I don’t think a 4 day workweek would damage the normal business society we have in place. Businesses will continue to find a way to stay open to meet everyone’s needs.

We could continue on at length discussing a multitude of pros and cons with each being of lesser significance. However, I think the above pros and cons are probably some of the most important when looking at the shortweek and I believe the pros by far outweigh the cons in almost every situation. Of course the business has to determine the benefits on their own, but in the end, we all know that happy employees make the company more money. If you can design a system that allows your employees to have more time at home, they will be happier and in return work harder. Time is more valuable than small increases in pay the vast majority of time. As I said earlier, time off is priceless. An individual can always find a way to make a few extra dollars but they cannot EVER make a few extra days. Time is of utmost value in our lives. The shortweek allows us to have our time and in the end, business can reap the rewards of rested and focused workers.

Citation: http://money.cnn.com/