Is The 40 Hour Work Week Working?

Today people are looking for benefits what will help them manage their work-life life-styles better. Today, with the help of technology, employer is now starting to be more capable of offering flexible options with great results.

Additionally flexibility, which is very important to Toyota’s Total Production (TPS), does not change volume by changing of plant layout but increases flexibility in overtime working and general manpower. This flexibility gives employees the ability to work about 48 hours a week if needed to meet demands of customers, (Smith, 2005).

Human resource managers are responsible for knowing what regulations are needed to maintain safe staffing levels and what exceptions, if any, may be allowed. Renee should not have been allowed to work such an unconventional schedule of 5 consecutive 12-hour shifts. There are clear guidelines, and in some states, restrictions on the number of hours worked in a day, and a week.

If the workplace of today could be characterized by a single theme, it would most likely focus on the continual presence of change. Dramatic changes in technology, the marketplace and the workforce have compelled organizations to re-evaluate not only the competitiveness of their products, but also the core ways in which work is performed. It is out of this pursuit for continued survival that organizations have been faced with the notion of varying work-schedules beyond the traditional hours of nine to five. This paper will explore the societal and business changes that have led to a proliferation in flexible work patterns. This paper will also address the benefits and disadvantages of flexible work patterns for

Before introducing the workplace issues related to the development of four-day workweek, a clear definition of this schedule is needed. According to Department of Labor (n.d.), “A workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours, or seven consecutive 24-hour periods. The workweek does not have to coincide with the calendar week, but instead it may begin on any day of the week and at any hour of the day.” It might be the “four-day, 32-hour workweek – more leisure, less work” (Wernette 1), or the “three-day, 40 hour, compressed work week” that Vega

Hill, E.J., Erickson, J.J., Holmes, E.K. and Ferris, M. (2010). Workplace flexibility, work hours, and work-life conflict: Finding an extra day or two. Journal of Family Psychology, 24(3),

Flexible work shifts have been on the rise due to changes in demographics such as higher amounts of females in the workplace and dual income households (Idris, 2014). In most health care industry positions, employees may be required to work long hours and shift hours. These shifts can be very hard on employee morale and welfare. Strenuous and difficult shifts can lead to burnout and high retention rates (Mathis, Jackson, & Valentine, 2014). Alegent Health offers flexible work schedules in order to help employees gain a balance between their work and personal lives. Alegent Health’s willingness to be flexible with their employees increases their retention

The objective is to use flexible working as a tool and to formalise a strategy to assist with staff retention and enable the company to be more competitive in the employment market.

Our organization flexible work policy outlines the requirements for the individuals who needs to change their work contract to be different working hours, days or weeks than previously stated.

Flexible work arrangements allow workers opportunity for flexible hours, ability to work from home, job

Figure 1 provides the detailed data behind each of these types and which of these provisions have been most and least frequently offered. The statistics behind each of these types (Figure 1) helped me to analyse which flexible working patterns have really been offered and then comparing such data with the uptake of such offerings by the employees (Figure 2Error: Reference source not found), provided a clear view on which provisions actually work.

Flexibility is made up of numerous components however, within in the context of the workplace involves thinking creatively about how working lives can be better structured to match individual and business needs (Job Access, 2012). Following the review of penalty rate provisions, amendments to the flexibility clause were sought after with particular attention paid to the manufacturing industry. Greater flexibility was requested in the taking

Among the many labor issues in America today, one of the most prominent being discussed is that of shorter shifts. Traditionally, eight-hour shifts were used to create a time frame for work; this seemed to cause better productivity and happier workers.

Ultimately employers indicate that unless businesses can become more flexible then in the long-term there will be no work available at all (Pye, 2012).

Businesses should evaluate their flex work arrangement on a regular basis. As the bar graph shows above, company that doesn’t offer flexible work arrangement has