Understanding Weaknesses of the Four-Day Workweek
Four-day workweek, like the name suggests, calls for replacing the five eight-hour days with four ten-hour days without changes in hourly earnings or weekly earnings. Therefore, the same number of hours of work and leisure are provided at the same earnings. The concept of a compressed workweek is not new, even if it is not the norm for most jobs. Proposals to reduce weekly hours of work, a major concern of American labor in the early years of century, are again a serious concern to many people. The 2008 National Study of Employers, released by the Families and Work Institute, found that 38 percent of US firms allow a compressed workweek for some employees. Eight percent permit it for all or most employees (Gardner). When a growing number of employers are considering converting to a compressed four-day workweek, it is important to understand positives and negatives of the new work schedule, to analyze a specific example of company that have failed in converting to the new policy, and to understand additional factors to consider before the implementation of the new policy.
An advantage brought to employers is that the four-day workweek helps companies save money incurred on daily operation. When employees cram 40 hours of work into four days, companies can save energy bills by closing for an extra one day per week. For example, in 2009, Utah became the first state to institute an official four-day workweek for all state
Over the last two decades, American workers have been clocking more and more hours on the job, and they now work more hours than workers in any other industrialized country. Annual work hours are 4% higher than they were in 1980, amounting to an extra 1 hour and 30 minutes at work per week, on average (ILO 1999). Workers are also clocking more overtime hours. Almost one-third of the workforce regularly works more than the standard 40-hour week; one-fifth work more than 50 hours. The growth in overtime work, while helping to drive the healthy growth in output in the U.S., has unhealthy social costs. It is taking its toll not only on workers, but on their families, communities, and, ultimately in many cases, patients, customers, and
To makes matters worse, the companies are more likely to offer a promotion to a 5 days a week employee than a 4 day a week employee because the first one is more valuable to the company than the
First, the reading passage claims that ,a four day work scheme will benefit the companies economy. It gives the idea that the company can recruit other employee and get other benefit from them with the same money. But the professor refutes the point by saying that it will be more costly. Because to recruit other employee it needs more office spaces, more training , more computers and more medical facilities for the newly recruited employees. So it will be more costly to manage
I propose that the average five day work week to be shortened down to four days. This bill will give people the rest and extra time that they need to function. A three day weekend is a reasonable amount of time people should be allowed to have to spend as they want. This bill will ensure that people will no longer overwork themselves.
Some parents may attempt to argue about how a four day school week will not allow their children to get all of the educational time needed in only four short school days because they believe that you need to go five days a week in order to be successful. Recent studies have shown that children that go to school four days a week have improved significantly after the switch. Also, A Three day weekend sounds ideal for families to bond and to have a break from all of the worries of work and school.last but not least fulling,heating,and many other expenses make going four days a week a substantial
If we moved to a 6 hour work day from an 8 hour work day companys would face many issues. They would have to determine if they are still about to cover the employees for health insurance, would wages stay the same, and would they reqiure more workers to do
While there are upsides to employers offing a four day work schedule there are also draw backs that many employers face as well. Many employees use their extra day off every week to work a second job. Often times when this happens the employee returns to work more tired and run down then they would if they were working a standard five day work schedule Thank God it’s Thursday? 74). Returning to work being more run down will cause a decrease in productivity. It has also been found that a large number of people who do work a four day work week report being more tired and fatigued throughout the day and tend to become more distracted than do employees who work a more traditional schedule (Bird 1067). This increased tiredness and fatigue will ultimately lead to a decrease in production.
the average work week would be reduced to between fifteen and twenty hours a week by the
companies.” Harvard Business Review. 2017 Harvard Business School Publishing, 19 Aug 2015. https://hbr.org/2015/08/the-research-is-clear-long-hours-backfire-for- people- and-for-companies
Flexible working hour can give many benefits to organization especially to women employees. This system can provide better quality of working life, health, motivation and work-life balance for women employees. Other than that, flexible working hour can improve organization reputation and productivity because women employees can more focus on working and performance.
One hour a day, two days a week. Pitter Pitter Pitter. “Meet George Jetson….” Creators of the show The Jetsons imagined that in the future, American workers such as George Jetson would hardly work in a given week, even as little as one hour a day, two days a week. A less extreme prediction by British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted in 1930 that in the year 2030, workers will only only work about 15 hours per week. (Bregman) If asked whether they would want to work longer hours or have more free time, most Americans today would want more free time. If a shorter work week is so appealing, then why do we still put up with a 40 hour work week? Where is George Jetson? As evidence from multiple other countries has shown, a shorter week could reduce unemployment, improve productivity, and increase mental health standards, and the United States should discard the current 40 hours a work system in exchange for a shorter, more practical one.
According to Hernreich, 2008 flextime or flexible can made our work force more efficient and more focused while they are working. It is a step backward to go back to rock solid hours. As long as an employee is getting the job done, they should be treated like an adult. Research show that many adult workers like to work schedules that flexible other than work that just follow the schedules and cannot be tolerance. The flexible work is such as flextime, telework or compressed word weeks are example of increasing variation in the timing and duration of work hours and work location. According to Ellen Ernst Kossek etc. pal, flexible work schedules have four types such as flexibility in the timing of work, flexibility in the location or place of work,
Nowadays many people manage to apply a broad methodology in running their own career under a preferable time-frame. There are wider approaches on having an ideal working system that could enable the best practice of working which leads toward an excellent outcome. Many industries continue to the nine to five work hours whilst others prefer flexitime. The 9-5 job is still very familiar with some industries. However, the balance in dealing with career and family life is an issue that concerns both employees and industries. Employees who have a balance between career and life are likely to be more satisfied with their life rather than those who only focus on work. Therefore, work and life balance would greatly enable productivity and ensure an employment arrangement that enables positive office morale. One of the best ways to enable employees to reach a good balance between career and family life is through flexitime. Hawks explained flexitime as “a work schedule that requires employees to be present for predetermined core hours but allows them the flexibility to vary the rest of their schedule based on their needs and preferences” (2014, para. 2). Flexible schedule originated in Germany in 1967 (Ministry of Manpower, 2001). It aimed to mitigate the commuting issue and in 1972, being introduced to the United States by the Hewlett-Packard Company (Stafco, 2014). Flexitime is widely known as a flexible work option. This system involves 40 hours of a work week, but these hours
Being neither of the work force or a buisness head, it is difficult to take a stance on if a work day should be shortened or kept similarly the same. To be frank, finances are a key componant to any living being's life, and the productivity of a company, as well as a proportional paycheck, is as much determined on each other as on surrounding circumstance, but how does a company owner, or an employer, find this medium, this perfect middle? It's not an easy task, with the cash market so volitile, to foresee if their experimentations are dependant on workers or the outside influence of consumers. Having never thought over the problem, both articles give one much to think about.
The extension of the traditional workday has the potential to reduce leisure and recreational hours during the workweek (Cohen & Gadon, 1981). The additional hours worked can impact the employee’s time to attend community and/or social events (Cohen & Gadon, 1981). Another disadvantage could be the unavailability of key personnel (Poor, 1970). In the event that an important question has to be addressed, or a decision has to be made, a manager may be forced to wait until the employee returns to work in order to obtain an answer to a question, move forward with a project or make a decision.