Employers rethinking five-day workweek

Bert Martinez, CEO of a business-training firm in Houston, has decided to blow away the five-day workweek for himself and his staff of 28.

Starting next month the entire company is going to work for four ten-hour days instead of five eight-hour days, and the company’s workweek will stay that way if productivity and profits stay the same or increase. It’s all part of Martinez’s strategy to take back his personal life, and his general inclination to shake things up at the firm.

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Today about 34 percent of employers offer some sort of compressed workweek benefit, up from 26 percent in 2008, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. But will these initiatives grow more widespread once the economy accelerates?

“I don’t see it happening,” said Robert Whaples, a professor of economics at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. He said the traditional five-day, 40-hour week simply has been in place too long.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42918666/ns/business-careers/t/employers-rethinking-five-day-workweek/?GT1=43001

While this sounds intriguing, I seriously wonder if it will not lead to a 50 hour work week vs. the traditional 40 hr over time.

Too bad you can't timeshare with another tenant...

What we did was have 3 rotating sets of days off. Every few months we would switch so it was fair to everyone. You worked M-T, W-S or a split shift with Sun,Mon+Wed off. The extra two hours a day were well worth getting 3 days off.

the meaning of life is 4 days on, 3 days off...

I'll go so far as to say the nature of humanity on earth would be forever changed (in a positive way) if most people were able to do this...

That was one of the things we all liked about it, would do 1 or 2 OT days a month and still have plenty of time to get stuff done. Did not need to go find another job, oh and BTW a union made this possible

the bonus was we could come in an hour early & still leave at 5, or arrive at 9 & leave at 7. I loved having 3 day weekends!

dg

:shrug:

Alternating Fridays off. 9 hour days Mon-Thurs, 8 hours on the Friday we worked. The new week started on Friday at 11 AM for pay purposes, se we still worked "40 hours/week"

I hate the "long" work weeks.

6 day workweek, 4 or 5 hours a day, 6 days a week.

Come in early, leave in time for lunch, and still have the time and energy to do something else.

I liked having three days off. It worked well for the company and employees.

for awhile. Didn't much like it, because you can do NOTHING for the four days except work. Forget any after work activity. The interesting thing is that very little work got done during the last couple hours of each day. It was like people were programed to stop working at a certain time. My problem was that I need to eat by about 5:00 or a little after, so the last hours were spent in a hypogylcemic fog. Not that I didn't love the three days off, but you end up making up for the four evenings you weren't available, so it's six of one...

It is six of one and a half-dozen of the other.

The job I was in was an outdoor physical job so it was easier to stay involved and maintain energy level. The added benefit was, if the boss called you in for a fifth day it was pure overtime.

I agree there was little time left for other activities after ten hours plus travel time, other than eating, sleeping, and getting ready for the next day's work. But for the workers who had enough seniority to get Friday or Monday off there was always a three day weekend to look forward to as well.

for a quick, busy job.

Crazy Montessorians... I think it started during the 70's gas crisis, but I loved it.

Just curious.

The move was meant to balance a budget, which it did -- on the backs of bus drivers, janitors and support staff who now work four days instead of five. I work from home, so now my kids are here for one day of my work week. For other working parents, it's meant finding care for younger kids or making sure older kids are occupied productively.

There are some advantages, but I'm not crazy about it.

9 hours a day Mon-Thurs, 8 hours on the working Friday, every other Friday off.

My dad's been doing the 4/10 forever.

With only four commutes per week, this could save on gasoline for employees with a long drive to work.

by telecommuting the cube-farm jobs. How many of those really require you being in the office to do the same work? ;)

If CEOs want to keep the facilities running 24/7, then perhaps a RED and Blue Work force, like crews on a Nuclear Submarine might be in order.
Anything to squeeze the last bit of labor from the Workers.

But if it works for them, good for them.

It was nice having him home for the extra day.

doesn't fit every business ...

Imagine the "four-day work week" for a stock trading firm ...

:silly:

by phone and email. In addition to the 10 hours...I have nearly an hour commute each way. I'm sick of it. I feel like I don't have a life. I've long advocated for 4 day work weeks. They can rotate so your business is still open Monday through Friday.
We keep working harder, putting in longer hours, for less pay and benefits and absolutely no job security. No wonder we're all on anti-depressants.

I can relate to the always connected thing, vacation, weekend, at night, I am always available. Partly my fault but it makes things easier when I return to work if I stay connected.

I would love to work 4/10's but just see the danger of it becoming 5/10's.

Saves on costs - only run the boilers, turn on the lights four days a week. Skeleton crew on Friday for maintenance, catch up on things if necessary. Fridays were always terrible days to run the routes with generally bad traffic.

Before you think he is some sort of angel he automated the fuck out of his plant and has 25% of his employees from twenty years ago but more business and higher margins.

My husband routinely works 6 days a week but doesn't get paid for the extra day or the extra hours in his frequent 10 to 12 hour working days. That's because he's a "computer professional" and therefore exempt from fair labor standards. But if he should complain? He'd be kicked out the door and replaced with a low-paid computer worker from India here on an H1B visa.

...in retail the idea of the 5-day week has been scrapped for a 6-day, open on holidays, irregularly scheduled week.

I am insanely jealous of that fact.

LOVE IT! Except you easily start hating working Fridays. "Uggh...I have to work 5 DAYS this week!"

Still jealous. Actually, I might be even more so now. Thanks. Grrr...

When I worked at a bank my boss would give us a half day during the week in exchange for a half day on Saturday (we rotated) and I HATED that. I would have rather worked all day on Saturday and not come in for 4 hours.

I would have jumped at the chance for 4 10 hour days.

And it makes sense.

The question I have is would the employer eventually stretch it to 5 days, 10 hours/day?

The only concern I have.

The question is that if they need to be fully staffed for 5 days, then it might not work.

Both my parents work here (my dad for 23 and my mom for 15). They've had these schedules for at least as long as my mom's worked here, but even earlier...I remember my dad having every Friday off before then. They haven't pushed people to 5/10s yet. If I'm working on my off Friday, and this goes for everyone I know, it's because you're behind schedule. It's not expected you'll work on your off days in general. We're on a tight schedule right now, so a lot of people are up against hard deadlines to get stuff done, so they've been working on their weekends, but getting paid OT.

My husband and I both worked for Levi Strauss and on Fridays we were off from work by 11:30. Loved it!!

Any time I can get it. Last time I worked 4 10s I managed to record and co-produce a pretty good album for my best friend's band with the time I had available.

:kick:

nt

First, there's flextime. A 4/10 shift starts at 6:45am, I think, with a 30 min lunch. You could take longer, but you just work later. I work the 9/80, my shift starts at 7:30, 45 min lunch, off at 5:15pm. I take advantage of flextime and arrive at 8 usually. I work with lots of people with kids. One guy I work with arrives to work by 6:30am to get off by 4:15pm so he can coach soccer.

I think people would get the same or more done.

From my experience I don't see 8 hours less per week creating a productivity equal to 40 or more per week.

work 4 10 hour days & the other week 5 8 hour days. So I have every other Friday off. I like it a lot.

Not a biggie.

before i retired last year. i LOOOOOOOVED it! it really prepared me for retirement. oh, and i was in a union too, which i can thank for allowing that schedule.

for me, i already work 50+ hour weeks. i doubt they'd let me go for a day.

Though, given our unemployment rate, I think the full-time workweek should be reduced to 32 hours, on a 4x8 basis. That said, if you are doing 40, 4x10 beats 5x8 any day.

does it. Especially if the energy savings becomes even more significant.

I've worked 8s, 10s and 12s at my current job. The 12 hour work days leave you no time for anything but 2-3 hours of decompressing after work before you have to go to bed.

But working a 10 is fairly easy, and not much harder than an 8. But I'm glad I don't do 12 hour days anymore.

And several have complained about feeling more fatigued at the end of the day. I have worked them in the distant past and had the same experience.

I also worked 12's for a while, and thankfully it was only a temp position.

The workload is simply to high right now for anyone to be on a 4 day schedule.


I wouldn't mind having a business day off every week plus my weekend. I hope it works out so I can get all my errands done in one day and then have the weekend to myself.

If I were paid by the hour, I would be cleaning up.

It sucks when he's working but he says it feels like a mini vacation between every work period.

Plus he gets 16 days of vacation a year, but with this work schedule, it is in reality two full blocks of 3 weeks in a row off. If he decides to take it that way.

My work now brings an odd schedule anyway, so it's irrelevant to my current situation.

But I would like the shortened week.

They were prospecting for phosphate by core drilling. Inevitably, some piece of equipment would break at least once a week. Dad set up the ten hour days for his crews, then he would take in whatever needed repairs and the machine shop would fix it over the three day weekend.

The men loved having three day weekends most weeks - and if they got behind, they were willing to work overtime to catch up.

I was in management, and in order not to accrue comp time, I worked one 40 hour week and the next week I would work 37.5 in 4.5 days ( 4 8.5 hour days and 1 3.5 hour day (Friday) I would get a 2.5 day weekend, it was great, I would have preferred 4 10 hour days. but I took what I could get.

My staff used to get pissed when I booked out early every other Friday. I told them they could do comp time too, but they refused?

the 5-day work week they should look to Europe and cut back to a 35 hour work week ... it actually enhances productivity! That I'd go for. 4/10 I would absolutely HATE (and it would actually be 4/11 if you take an hour lunch which doesn't count towards your 8 hour total). I can barely make it to work by 8:30 now (not a morning person) and I walk to and from work so I'd have to walk a mile home after dark in the winter.

i really thought it would say that more and more companies are requiring their employees to work 6 or 7 days a week. i know with my workload i'm in the office on the weekend fairly often and working from home as well. others in my office even more so.